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BJP’s Sanchi meeting raises corruption in Government

SANCHI: A two-day “Chintan Shivir” (brainstorming session) of the Madhya Pradesh unit of Bharatiya Janata Party ended here on Wednesday with the clear message that the party cadres are supreme and the State Ministers and ruling party MLAs cannot be allowed to neglect them, especially during an election year such as this one.

The issue of corruption also reverberated during the session. State Home Minister Himmat Kothari went to the extent of pointing out that people had started asking how some ministers had suddenly become so rich and acquired so many flashy cars. “The newly acquired wealth of some ministers raises eyebrows,” senior party leaders were heard saying during one-to-one discussions on the sidelines. Besides Mr. Kothari, prominent BJP leaders who voiced concern were Sumitra Mahajan and Krishnamurari Moghe.

Mr. Moghe, who lost the recent Lok Sabha by-election from Khargone, was bitter in telling party leaders that people as well as party cadres were fed up with corruption at Government level. During informal exchanges, some party leaders also objected to the free hand being given to bureaucrats by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan.

A major focus was on building a strategy for the coming State Assembly elections. The party general secretary in charge of organisational affairs, Ram Lal, was particularly emphatic in pointing out that MLAs failing to perform would be denied ticket for the next election.

State BJP president Narendra Singh Tomar said that a high-power committee had been formed with former Chief Minister Sunderlal Patwa as convener to consider all the suggestions received during their two-day meeting. He said the party had decided to go ahead with a State-wide agitation on January 21 to focus public attention on “failure” of the Congress-led UPA Government at the Centre.

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BJP’s Sanchi meeting raises corruption in Government

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