Long-standing BJP leaders continue to abandon party in poll-bound Madhya Pradesh, former MLA is 4th in last 5 months

Bhopal, Sep 1 (IANS) Madhya Pradesh's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) continues to witness jolt after jolt in the run-up to the Assembly elections as several leaders continue to quit and join other parties.

A day after a sitting MLA from Kolaras in Shivpuri district resigned, two-times former MLA Girija Shankar Sharma, a strong leader from Narmadapuram, also left the party and is likely to join the Congress very soon.

His resignation from the BJP may be deemed the routine musical chairs politicians perform during the elections, but on the other hand, if he shifts into the opposition, he would be the fourth leader associated with the BJP for decades to be poached by the Congress.

Sharma resigned from the BJP, accusing the saffron party of ignoring veteran leaders and workers after the advent of new leaders in the party.

The former MLA said he would ensure that the BJP candidates don’t win from the seat, as the return of the present government isn’t in the state’s larger interest.

About his political future, Sharma admitted that he has recently met state Congress chief Kamal Nath and senior leader Digvijaya Singh once, but he is yet to take any final decision on joining the opposition party.

"I will support the best opposition candidate from Hoshangabad Assembly seat. But it remains to be seen whether that will be done by being inside the Congress or outside. It’s still a month and half before polls are announced, whether I'll join the Congress, the AAP or any other opposition party will be decided later," he said.

The Hoshangabad seat is one of the four seats of Narmadapuram district (earlier named Hoshangabad). All four seats were won by the BJP in 2018.

Sharma is the son of veteran BJP leader and former state assembly Speaker Sitasaran Sharma and the family have been influential in Narmadapuram since 1990.

However, Sharma’s resignation BJP’s primary membership happened amid reports of possibility of the BJP denying ticket to anyone from the Sharma family on the Hoshangabad seat for the first time in 33 years.

Key sources in the BJP claimed that the Sharma family is also dejected over being ignored in the recent cabinet rejig by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.

Sharma is the fourth from old BJP family to get disenchanted with the party in five months.

Before him, Rao Yadvendra Singh Yadav who is the son of three-time former BJP MLA (late) Rao Deshraj Singh Yadav, quit the party to join the Congress in March. In April, former BJP MP from Khargone-ST seat, Makhan Singh Solanki also quit and joined the Congress. His nephew Sumer Singh Solanki is the BJP member of the Rajya Sabha.

In May, former CM late Kailash Joshi's son and former state minister Deepak Joshi also ended his decades-long association with the BJP to join the Congress. He is keen at contesting against Chouhan from the latter's political pocket-borough Budhni in central MP's Sehore district.