BHOPAL: Most of the ministers of the state government would remain engaged in two by-polls in the state. Despite losing Ratlam-Jhabua parliamentary by-polls last year the Bharatiya Janata Party is sending the ministers in by-polls in a similar manner. The BJP organisation has made a special instruction to the ministers to be aware of not neglecting the local workers.
Among the ministers manning Shahdol parliamentary by-polls, there would be in-charge minister of Shahdol, Rajendra Shukla, in-charge minister of Umaria Omprakash Dhurve, in-charge minister of Anmuppur Sanjay Pathak along with Bhupendra Singh, Jaybhan Singh Pavaiya, Vishwas Sarang, Lal Singh Arya and Lalita Yadav who have been engaged. Besides, minister Gyan Singh has been given the overall charge of the polls. Gyan Singh’s name has been doing rounds as a candidate from Shahdol because of which he has been told to handle the entire election instead of taking care of any particular place.
The BJP has asked Archana Chitnis, Vijay Shah and Paras Jain to manage responsibility of Nepanagar assembly by-polls.
The working of the government would slow down a lot for a month after these ministers would get busy in the by-polls. After getting instructions for getting involved in the by-polls the ministers have also started thronging these areas. Several ministers would remain absent in the two-day collector-commissioner conference starting from Tuesday.
Chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has also planned to devote his entire time to Shahdol parliamentary constituency after Diwali. Besides the road-show and public meetings, Chouhan would also contact people in the villages. Making preparations for departmental review in the beginning of the month, Chouhan would now be able to hold the review in November.
The BJP had considered keeping ministers away from by-polls after debacle in Ratlam-Jhabua parliamentary by-polls but it has come to fore in a survey report of Shahdol that there should be someone in every assembly area of the parliamentary constituency who could manage the elections on local level. The BJP organisation lacks such ministers who could handle the election responsibility because of which the ministers are being given the charge.
