The meeting was held in utmost secrecy with orders being circulated not to use mobile phones.
NEW DELHI: Around 40 km from the Chief Minister House at Bhopal, a group of about 20 BJP national functionaries, state leaders and Union ministers indulged in a marathon nine-hour “core group” interaction at a resort situated inside the Ratapani forest sanctuary on 1 October. The meeting was presided by National General Secretary (Organization) B.L. Santhosh, the de-facto number three in the BJP’s hierarchy, and in attendance were Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Union ministers Jyotiraditya Scindia, Narendra Tomar, state president V.D. Sharma, party general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya, state in-charge P. Muralidhar Rao, State Organization Joint General Secretary Hitanand Sharma, BJP National Joint general secretary (Organization) Shiv Prakash, organizing secretary Ajay Jamwal and only eight of the 30 ministers of the state cabinet.
The meeting was held in utmost secrecy with explicit orders being circulated not to use mobile phones and only few state BJP functionaries, who were taking care of the logistics, being allowed inside the resort premises. The idea behind holding the meeting in such a protected, restricted environment was to have a frank discussion among the central functionaries and state leaders in view of the challenges that the BJP was facing in Madhya Pradesh which will start poll preparations this time next year. According to BJP sources in Bhopal, Santhosh—who has swiftly developed an image of someone who can get authentic ground information regarding party activities and administration from various states without much effort—among other issues, raised the issue of alleged corruption in state departments. The said meeting, sources said, was held after feedback that was sent by Ajay Jamwal regarding the situation in Madhya Pradesh, was received by the party office in Delhi.
In the interaction, Santhosh spoke “freely” and gave specific details that he had gathered about wrongdoings in the state administration while speaking about how these activities can and have impacted the party’s electoral performance in the past, notably in the recently held civic elections where the party lost mayor posts in crucial cities and the 2018 polls in which the BJP lost and then had to go for extra-electoral measures to remove Congress’ Kamal Nath from power. According to a Bhopal-based party leader, the party was aware of the challenges that it was going to face in the state and it was not taking the result of the 2023 Assembly elections as “for-granted”. Apart from administrative issues, the national functionaries also spoke about the “infighting” among the top leaders in the state which has led to public statements being made by supporters of these respective leaders against their competitors.
The topic related to whether CM Chouhan will be replaced or the party will contest the fourth successive elections under his leadership was not discussed. As per few state leaders, the possibility of Chouhan being replaced now, with the state elections just one year away, was “unlikely”. Among the CM contenders and probables present in the meeting held at Ratapani, were Scindia, Tomar, Sharma and Vijayvargiya.
However, as the July cabinet reshuffle by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah showed, “influential” and “tall” leaders were apprised of their removal from the cabinet hours before the decision was made public and hence the possibility of the party replicating what it did in Uttarakhand, Gujarat and Tripura in Madhya Pradesh next year should not be ruled out.