• By Mayukh Debnath
  • Sun, 20 Aug 2023 11:27 AM (IST)
  • Source:JND
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Union Home Minister and senior BJP leader Amit Shah will release the '20-year report card' of subsequent state governments in Madhya Pradesh during a party event on Sunday, his office informed. The gathering will take place at Bhopal's Kushabhau Thakre Sabhagar.

This comes ahead of the Assembly elections scheduled to take place in the state towards the end of this year. MP has been under the constant rule of BJP since December, 2003, except for 17 December, 2018-23 March, 2020 - a period when Congress's Kamal Nath led the state as Chief Minister.

"Shah will release the report card of the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government at a function here. Thereafter, he will leave for Gwalior where he will chair and address a working committee meeting," MP BJP media cell head Ashish Agrawal was quoted as saying on Saturday by news agency PTI.

Shah is also slated to address a gathering of BJP's working committee members in Gwalior later in the day. "We want to increase our movement in Gwalior, the erstwhile kingdom of the Scindias," an unidentified BJP leader, cited by PTI, said.

The apparent increase in the BJP's efforts to retain power in Madhya Pradesh comes as several of Union Minister Jyotiradtiya Scindia's 'loyalists' jumped ship to rejoin Congress in the state recently - more than two years after rallying behind him in joining the 'saffron party'.

On Friday, Samandar Patel, a close confidant of Jyotiraditya Scindia, rejoined Congress after resigning from the BJP. As many as 5,000 of Patel's supporters followed him in securing the primary membership of the 'grand old party'.

In June, Shivpuri strongman Baijnath Singh Yadav, who was working with Scindia in the Kolaras area of the district, rejoined the Congress party along with several of his supporters. Later, former Shivpuri district vice-president of BJP Rakesh Gupta, another Scindia 'loyalist', followed suit.

In March 2020, Scindia led 22 Congress MLAs to join the BJP, resulting in the collapse of the erstwhile Kamal Nath-led government in the state.

Assembly by-polls held in Madhya Pradesh in 2020 saw the BJP gain big in the Gwalior-Chambal region, where the majority of seats had fallen vacant on account of Scindia-led rebel MLAs shifting to BJP. However, in last year's MP local body elections, BJP lost the Gwalior mayoral post, which the party had been holding for 57 years.

 

(With inputs from agencies)