Bhopal: Apprehensive of dissent among party cadre, Union minister and Gwalior MP Narendra Singh Tomar has been shifted to Morena as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) named 15 candidates for Lok Sabha polls in Madhya Pradesh in its first list for the state.
It was widely speculated that Tomar, apprehensive of dissent in Gwalior where he won in 2014, could shift base to Morena, which was earlier represented by Anup Mishra — nephew of late Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
Mishra had lost the assembly polls from Bhitarwar in December. He had in the past hit national headlines when he openly claimed in Parliament that ‘good schemes’ of the Modi government had encountered botched-up implementation. Mishra had surprised the government when he said, “Under PM Modi’s leadership a lot of schemes are launched in our country, but due to slow implementation of these schemes, the common man is not able to enjoy its perks.”
According to sources, Tomar’s popularity in Gwalior took a hit after the BJP’s massive defeat in the region in state assembly polls.
However, another Union minister Virendra Kumar, whose nomination was also doubtful, managed to get a ticket from Tikamgarh. Former MLAs KK Srivastava and RD Prajapati led the party workers who wanted to oppose Kumar’s nomination.
Other lawmakers who faced opposition in the party were Mandsaur MP Sudhir Gupta, Sidhi MP Riti Pathak, Mandla MP Faggan Singh Kulaste and Rewa MP Janardan Mishra. All of them have been re-nominated.
Jyoti Dhurve, an MP from Betul whose term was marred by allegations and inquiries over her caste, was dropped by the BJP and Durgadas Uike was selected in her place.
Congress turncoat Bhagirath Prasad who had switched loyalties days after getting nomination from Congress in 2014, lost favour with the party this time as Sandhya Rai got the nomination from the seat. In the list of 15 nominees, BJP dropped five sitting MPs.
Himadri Singh, who switched over to the BJP despite being the daughter of Congress MPs, was obliged with a nomination from Shahdol. The party decided to overlook claims of sitting MP Gyan Singh. It was Himadri who as a Congress candidate lost to Singh in the 2016 bypoll from Shahdol by just 57,000 votes.
Sitting Ujjain MP Chintamani Malviya perhaps paid the price for his regular critical remarks and was replaced by Anil Firozia. BJP chose to go with sitting Mandsaur MP Sudhir Gupta, though the region faced major farm unrest in 2017.
Senior MPs Prahlad Patel, Nandkumar Singh Chauhan, Rakesh Singh (BJP MP chief) and Faggan Singh Kulaste got re-nominations from Damoh, Khandwa, Jabalpur and Mandla respectively.
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