Ticket to Sidhi Riti Pathak MP sparks anger in BJP, Singrauli party head resigns
BHOPAL: Distribution of tickets for 15 seats in the state has sparked resentment in the BJP. Consequently, president of the Singhrauli unit of the party, Kantidev Singh, put in his papers in protest against ticket to MP from Sidhi Riti Pathak on Sunday. Singh said he had sent in his resignation letter to party president Rakesh Singh. Party workers had demanded that ticket for the Sidhi Lok Sabha seat should be given to someone from Singrauli, Singh said.
Singh also said that after a survey it came to light that besides the public opinion was against Pathak, party workers were not happy with her. Former MP Govind Mishra and present MLA Kedarnath Shukla are also against Pathak. Apart from that, giving ticket to Sudhir Gupta from Mandsaur again has sparked protests in the party, and party’s general secretary in the state Banshilal Gurjar is unhappy about that. He has, however, refused to make any comments on the issue.
Besides, giving ticket to Union minister Virendra Khatik from Tikamgarh has raised protests, as MLA Harishanker Khatik demanded ticket for his wife. The MLA is angry about the decision. On an earlier also, when the name of Virendra Khatik was proposed, there were protests in the residence of former MLA from Tikamgarh, KK Shrivastava. The BJP had to face anger of the party leaders for not giving tickets to certain people during the Vidhan Sabha elections. Similarly, distribution of tickets has kicked up anger in the party before the Lok Sabha Elections.
Choice of candidates fails to satisfy local Congress workers
Bhopal: Voices of dissent are being heard from Congress camp a day after party came out with the names of candidates for nine Lok Sabha constituencies in State. Not happy with the choice of candidates, local Congressmen have started showing their discontent over the ticket distribution for Tikamgarh, Khajuraho and Hoshangabad Lok sabha seats. Congress has named Kiran Ahirwar as party candidate from Tikamgarh, a seat reserved for Schedule Caste.
The AICC decision has taken local Congressmen by surprise. as soon after her name was announced, the party workers were heard inquiring ‘Who is Kiran Ahirwar?’ Minister for excise Brijendra Singh Rathore informed Ahirwar was not a known figure and doesn’t have any political background. She is daughter of retried IAS officer RN Bairwa, and married to an executive engineer; her father-in-law is janpad president, whereas her brother-in-law is a Sarpanch, he elaborated.
In Khajuraho, the Bharamins and Patel are annoyed over nomination of Kavita Singh Natiraja- wife of MLA Vikram Singh Natiraja- as party candidate. During assembly elections, Vikram Singh, had won Rajnagar seat defeating BJP candidate Arvind Pateriya by a very low margin. SP candidate Nitin Chaturvedi (son of Satyavrat Chaturvedi) and BSP candidate Vinod Kumar Patel also gave a tough fight to Singh. After his election as MLA, Singh had become critical of Bharamin and Patel community people, which now is going against his wife’s candidature.
Sensing the undercurrents, the local party workers are apprehensive about her poll prospects. Khajuraho Lok sabha Constituency covers the entire Panna district and parts of Chhatarpur and Katni districts. The Congress workers in Panna are not pleased with parachute candidate Kavita Singh, who is a resident of Rajnagar of Chattarpur district, which constitutes a part of Khajoraho LS constituency. A month back, local Congress workers in Panna had passed a proposal stating that only a ‘local’ person should be selected as candidate for the upcoming polls.
Besides, resentment is also brewing among party workers over candidate selection for Hosangabad seat. Shailendra Diwan, son of Diwan Chandra Bhan Singh, who was minister in Digvijaya Singh government, has been names as party candidate. The local partymen are opposing his candidature as they claimed that Diwan who belongs to Tendukhera was not well known in the constituency.a
