Bina MLA meets BJP chief amid row over allegiance
Congress
MLA
from Bina Nirmala Sapre, who has openly supported the
BJP
since last year, finds herself politically isolated as both parties distance themselves from her, and discontent brews within the ruling party's local workers.
On Tuesday, Sapre met new BJP state president Hemant Khandelwal in Bhopal following complaints by BJP urban local body members and party workers in her Bina constituency over her functioning. Earlier this week, several BJP leaders had earlier approached the party headquarters, questioning whether Sapre was acting as their representative or still aligned with the Congress.
On May 5 last year, during the last lap of Lok Sabha election campaign in the state, Sapre joined the BJP's public meeting in Rahatgarh in the presence of CM Mohan Yadav.
She campaigned for the BJP Lok Sabha candidate Lata Wankhede for the next five months.
However, the BJP officially did not give her primary membership though Sapre claimed she shifted her loyalty from the Congress to BJP.
Now, BJP local leaders and workers have complained about her way of working to Khandelwal. Following this, Khandelwal summoned her to Bhopal, and they had a closed-door meeting on Tuesday.
Party sources claimed that she does not have the support from the BJP's workers in the constituency.
And the party officially does not accept her as a member.
Speaking to TOI, BJP state spokesman Ajay Singh Yadav said, "Nirmala Sapre left the Congress because she was dissatisfied with that party. It is true she contested the 2023 assembly elections on a Congress ticket, but she must decide her future. A new state party president has taken charge and that is the reason she came to meet him. It was a regular meeting."
No matter how much the BJP tries to camouflage the volatile situation in Bina constituency, the truth remains that Sapre is an MLA with no party supporting her.
Since she left the Congress, the opposition party has written to the Speaker for her disqualification from the state assembly while the BJP denies having given her primary membership.
Technically she is still a Congress MLA with no acceptance from the BJP. Ruling party workers have also taken their grievances against Sapre to the chief minister.
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