BHOPAL: The supporters of Rajya Sabha MP Jyotiraditya Scindia may not get tickets in the ensuing civic polls. Earlier, they were deprived of any room in the BJP organisation. The BJP plans to give tickets to those leaders who have not been given berths either in the Cabinet or in the party organisation.
Because of Scindia’s defection from the Congress to the BJP, the latter returned to power in the state. As the BJP has given berths to most of the Scindia loyalists in the Cabinet, the party leadership does not want to adjust his supporters to any other posts. The dates for the civic polls may be declared next month. Scindia loyalists hope that their leader will have a lot of say in distribution of tickets in the Gwalior-Chambal region.
Other than Scindia, a few old hands in the BJP, such as Union minister Narendra Singh Tomar, home minister Narottam Mishra and party’s state unit president VD Sharma have a lot of influence in the region. All the three leaders are set to play an important role in distribution of tickets for the civic polls in the area.
The party’s state-in-charge, Murlidhar Rao, has already indicated at a meeting in Indore that Scindia supporters are not going to get more importance than they have already been given. None of the Scindia supporters has been inducted into the party organisation in the state. Apart from that, no Scindia loyalist has been included in the civic poll management committee of the BJP.
Because of Scindia, the BJP does not want to enrage those leaders who have been associated with the party for long. The ministers close to Scindia may bear the brunt of it as their supporters are unlikely to get tickets in the civic polls.
