BJP to elect new president for party's Madhya Pradesh unit in December

BHOPAL: State BJP will elect its new president in December. Sources in party said, contest could be tough with a race between sitting state BJP president Nandkumar Singh Chouhan, known to be close to chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and the central leadership’s new favourite national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya. Other names likely in race include that of MP from Jabalpur, Rakesh Singh, and minister for transport Bhupendra Singh.
Nandkumar Singh Chouhan aka Nandu Bhaiyya was nominated state party chief in August 2014. He replaced Narendra Singh Tomar after the latter was inducted into the Narendra Modi government.
Both Nandkumar Singh and Narendra Singh Tomar are known to be close to the chief minister and were appointed at his behest.
BJP elects its state president every three years. This time, chief minister Chouhan is again likely to bat for one of his men whether it be Nandu Bhaiyya or transport minister Bhupendra Singh. Former cabinet minister Kailash Vijayvargiya is the choice of chief minister’s rival factions within party.
A senior central leader told TOI, “Party workers are agitated after some ‘mandal (division)’ presidents were recently sacked. There is rising resentment among workers that the central leadership is not taking interest in the state unit. All senior leaders, including Sundarlal Patwa, Kailash Joshi and Kailash Sarang have stepped aside while only two or three persons are taking all decisions.” State BJP leaders argued that whoever becomes new president will have to quell anger of disgruntled workers who want change.
A meeting of party district presidents and general secretaries was held in state BJP headquarters on Saturday. State BJP chief Nandkumar Singh Chouhan and organisational general secretary Arvind Menon conducted the conference on next phase of elections which will be held in at least 5,000 BJP local committees and 756 ward committees. Election has already been held in 31,000 of 36,000 local committees since September 25.
After local and ward committees, elections will be held at district committees and then for the state president in December. Speaking at the meeting, Arvind Menon specified that organisational elections in wards will be held in two phases. District presidents will be elected in November.