By
L S Herdenia
BHOPAL: Both Congress and BJP have
started to prepare what may be described as infrastructure for the forthcoming
Lok Sabha elections. The state BJP President Rakesh Singh has removed 11
Presidents of the district committees. Those who have been removed include
close confidents of former Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Union
Minister Narendra Singh Tomar. Some party men commenting on Rakesh Singh’s move
said that Bhopal and Gwalior units were in the clutches of Chouhan and Tomar
respectively and both were inactive.
Incidentally Surendra Singh, who was
President of Bhopal lost his Vidhan Sabh seat in Bhopal. Rakesh Singh’s
decision resulted in the protest by a section of party men. The moment new
President of Bhopal was appointed Chouhan’s followers reached his residence and
conveyed their anger to him. With the reconstitution of 11 district committees,
Rakesh Singh has shown that he commands the party. Prior to Vidhan Sabha
elections, he was totally dependent on Chouhan.
Besides the reconstitution of the
district units, Rakesh Singh has also identified the issues which will form the
base of elections. Proposed twelve point agenda includes my family BJP family,
Kamal jyoti sankalp, One booth ten youth, Kamal cup sport events, intellectuals
meet Modi, BJP parivar team, Kamal Sandesh cycle rally, honouring army men,
Youth parliament, First vote to Modi, victory by youth conclave and Kamal youth
festivals.
As part of preparations for Lok Sabha
elections Congress President Rahul Gandhi has constituted five panels. These
panels will take care of various issues relating to the campaign for Lok Sabha
elections. Senior Congress leader and former chief minister Digvijaya Singh
will no longer lead the coordination committee like he did during the assembly election.
For Lok Sabha polls AICC in charge Deepak Babaria has been appointed chairman
of the 28-member coordination committee.
Chief Minister Kamal Nath, Guna MP
Jyotiraditya Scindia, former Chief Minister Digvijaya Singh, former leader of
opposition Ajay Singh, Ratlam MP Kantilal Bhuria, former PCC presidents Suresh
Pachauri and Arun Yadav, Rajya Sabha MPs Vivek Tankha and Rajmani Paterl are
members of this committee that will mobilise Congress workers. AICC also formed
a 29-member state election committee headed by Chief Minister Kamal Nath. The
coordination committee also includes some ministers of the Kamal Nath
government, including Bala Bachchan, Jitu Patwari, Govind Singh Rajput,
Vijaylaxmi Sadho and Kamleshwar Patel. Digivjaya Singh not heading the
coordination committee could mean that he could be fielded as party candidate
from a parliamentary constituency.
Rahul Gandhi also appointed Lok Sabha
manifesto committee to give recommendations for Madhya Pradesh. Former deputy
speaker of the assembly Rajendra Singh has been made chairman of the manifesto
committee, while Rajya Sabha MP and eminent lawyer Vivek Tankha will be
vice-chairman. Former MP from Mandsaur constituency Meenakshi Natarjan has also
been selected as vice-chairperson while former minister in the Digvijaya Singh
government Narendra Nahata will be convenor.
This is the same manifesto committee
that was appointed before last year’s assembly elections led by Rajendra Singh.
Vivek Tankha Meenkshi Natarajan and
Narendra Nahata were also part of the committee. The manifesto panel for the
assembly elections had five members. The only person who does not figure in the
Lok Sabha manifesto committee for the state is Virendra Kumar Batham who was a
special invitee for the assembly election manifesto named “Vachan Patra”. AICC
issued a press release signed by party general secretary KC Venugopal on
Thursday evening. It said that Congress national President Rahul Gandhi has
approved the ‘proposal of Madhya Pradesh Congress Manifesto Committee”.
In the four member manifesto
committee, two members Meenakshi Natarajan and Narendra Nahata hail from
Mandsaur the district where a farmers protest erupted in June 2017 and six
persons lost their lives after police firing,
Meanwhile there is no respite to the
controversy over invoking NSA to deal with the Cow slaughter crime. The latest
to attack MP Government is BSP supremo Mayawati. Mayawati dubbed it ‘state
terror’ and drew parallels between the Congress government in Madhya Pradesh
and Yogi Adityanath’s BJP government in Uttar Pradesh.
With BSP’s support crucial to the
Congress government in MP, most ministers chose not to comment on Mayawati’s
statement. Home Minister Bala Bachchan explained that NSA was imposed because
the accused were habitual offenders. “The law is doing its work” he said. State
Congress media committee convener Narendra Saluja defended his party’s
government and argued “Criminals and lawbreakers have no religion or caste.
This issue should not be perceived from a religious angle”. BJP seemed to agree
with Congress, with party state vice-president Vijesh Lunawat saying ”The law is equal for all, whether Hindu or
Muslim. Whether NSA or any other law in the country anti-socials should not be
protected. Anti-socials have no religion and they need to be dealt with under
legal provisions. Mayawati has always believed in divisive politics- be it
caste-wise or any other. BJP is a party that goes by the law”. (IPA
Service)
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