Shivraj Singh ChouhanSenior BJP leader Raghunandan Sharma, who had held Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s pro-reservation comment partly responsible for the party’s loss in Madhya Pradesh, has again targeted the former chief minister.
According to sources, the former Rajya Sabha member objected when Chouhan left a meeting called on Sunday to discuss the party’s preparedness for the general elections after his speech. Sharma was angry because Chouhan, who reportedly arrived late, did not wait to hear views of conveners of different cells of the party and left immediately after addressing them.
“Will such speeches be of any help?” Sharma is learnt to have said after Chouhan left the meeting and said conveners who come from all parts of the state feel dejected when they don’t get to share their views with senior leaders, especially about internal feuds at the local level.
When contacted, Sharma said it was a party meeting where many things are discussed and they are meant for internal consumption. He, however, admitted that he has asked the party to wind up the “CM Jankalyan Yojana Prakostha” or at least rename it to “BJP Jankalyan Yojana” because the party is no longer in power.
When exit polls suggested that the Congress had an edge over the BJP in MP, Sharma had gone public, saying that if the BJP loses, it will partly be due to Chouhan’s “mai ka lal” comment. Addressing a function in Bhopal, Chouhan had asserted that “no mai ka lal can end reservation”.
