Bhopal, May 26 (IANS) Extensive movement and a series of closed door meetings of Madhya Pradesh BJP leaders including Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and state unit president V. D. Sharma on Friday gave rise to speculation in political circles about some changes in the state party leadership.
It began in the morning after senior BJP leader and the state Home Minister Narottam Mishra reached V. D. Sharma’s residence and the duo held a closed door meeting that lasted nearly 20 minutes. Mishra, then met Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan at his residence and after that he reached the party headquarters.
BJP leaders maintained that the senior leader’s visit was to attend a series of meetings scheduled on Friday. In fact, V. D. Sharma along with organizational leaders including state in-charge Murlidhar Rao, national organisational secretary Shiv Prakash and state organisational secretary Hitanand Sharma was busy in a meeting of the OBC community.
However, all the leaders left the meeting and to receive CM Chouhan and they held a closed door meeting that ended after one hour. When the meeting was over, Chouhan left the party headquarters without answering press persons’ queries.
After Chouhan, Narottam Mishra also left the party office without speaking to the press. V. D. Sharma too maintained a distance from the press.
State BJP media in-charge Ashish Agrawal said that all talk about some possible changes was just a rumour. Talking to IANS, Agrawal said, “All speculation is fake, a creation of the opposition Congress.”
All these developments unfolded two days after Union Ministers Prahlad Patel and Narendra Singh Tomar along with the BJP’s national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya held a closed door meeting with Chouhan late on Wednesday. Sources privy to the development told IANS that V. D. Sharma had also attended that meeting, but one and a half hours later.
Chief Minister Chouhan is scheduled to leave for New Delhi where he is likely to meet top party leaders. However, the BJP office said that Chouhan is visiting Delhi to attend the inauguration of the new Parliament building, during which he will meet the central leadership.
–IANS
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