Jhabua by-election defeat exposes rift in BJP

After the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) defeat in Madhya Pradesh's Jhabua constituency, MLA Kedarnath Shukla attacked the party's state unit President Rakesh Singh and questioned his leadership abilities.

The party has issued a show-cause notice to Shukla over the incident.

The BJP wanted to create problems for the Kamal Nath led government in the Jhabua bypoll. But after the victory of the Congress party, anti-voices have started to rise within the opposition.

"Neither was the BJP defeated nor did the Congress party win the bypoll in Jhabua. The unfavourable result in the election has come only due to the non-political acts of the BJP state President. The central leadership should remove him from the party's post as soon as possible," Shukla said.

BJP state unit general secretary Vishnuttatta Sharma said that the party should consider Shukla's statement an act of indiscipline. What he has said does not come under the party's policy. He has been issued a show cause notice after discussion with the central leadership regarding the allegations of incompetence against the state President.

Referring to the success in the Lok Sabha elections, Sharma said: "The party won 28 out of 29 seats under the leadership of Singh. The BJP has not lost the by-election for the first time. Victory and defeat depends on the collective leadership of the party."

The Kamal Nath government does not have an absolute majority in the state. Out of the 230 Assembly seats, before the elections the Congress had 114 seats, which have now risen to 115. And the BJP lost one seat after the election results came in.

The Congress has the support of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), the Samajwadi Party (SP) and Independent MLAs. The government will now have the support of 122 MLAs.

"The performance of the BJP in the last 10 months was at its lowest level. There was no visible policy, leader and leadership in it and after the defeat now the party has to face an internal rift," political analyst Shiv Anurag Pateria said.

( With inputs from IANS )