Supporters of BJP leader Jyotiraditya Scindia, who is referred to as Maharaj by them, are upset as their leader has not been given any cabinet berth and have started putting pressure on the BJP central leadership to make Scindia a minister as soon as possible.
They believe Scindia’s status within the BJP will have a major bearing in the outcome of the impending by-elections in the state.
At the state level also they are united in demanding more ministerial positions for Scindia supporters in the next round of cabinet expansion.
One of the senior-most Scindia supporters, Civil Supplies and Cooperatives minister Govind Rajput, has openly demanded that Scindia should be made a cabinet minister at the Centre. He has also written to the central BJP leadership in this regard.
Several other leaders of the Bhind and Gwalior region have also raised similar demands. Former minister Imarti Devi, former MLAs Ramesh Agrawal, Munnalal Goyal among others are demanding an audience with BJP national president J P Nadda and other senior BJP leaders to push Scindia’s case.
Ramesh Agrawal said, “We want Scindia to be made Union minister before the by-elections to 24 seats in Madhya Pradesh as his elevation to a ministry will help the party and the candidates during the elections.”
State Water Resources minister Tulsi Silawat spoke on the same lines. “A lot of time has gone by. Scindia should be made a minister at the Centre. This will make it much easier for us to win the by-elections and Maharaj (Scindia) will also get down to campaigning more effectively.”
Similarly, the Scindia supporters are getting impatient due to delay in cabinet expansion in the state as many of them are eyeing a ministerial berth. For the past few days, the ex-MLA Scindia supporters are meeting chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan to complain that there are several problems in their constituencies which are not being looked into seriously and the officials posted there are not doing much to solve them.
On the other hand, several Congress leaders are poking fun over the fact that Scindia has not been made a minister at the Centre, and in the state also the cabinet is not being expanded to accommodate his MLA supporters who have resigned from their seats. Former minister Sajjan Singh Verma said that it has been over two months and Scindia and his supporters are sitting idle. “Scindia does not have the necessary influence in the top BJP leadership and therefore no one is listening to him and this has left his supporters in the lurch,” Verma said.
In a similar vein, Union Tourism minister Prahlad Patel said that it is not in BJP’s culture that anybody is made a minister based on demand being made by his supporters. “In BJP, it is the senior leaders of the organisation who decide who should be given which responsibility,” Patel said.
