BJP MLA says disturbed by party's using of Govt machinery for votes

Bhopal: A BJP MLA in Madhya Pradesh came out against his own party with an allegation that the ruling party in the state is using entire government machinery to benefit of the party in the local body elections, jeopardising the democratic values.

Narayan Tripathi, the five-time MLA contesting for different parties, said what is happening in the state at present pains him that the officials from bottom to top are seen working to garner votes for BJP. Though being a BJP MLA himself, he said, such misusing of power makes him anguished and disturbed.

In this country today a government can be brought down in 2 minutes, this is happening in local body polls also. This should not happen.

Tripathi added that today in this country, any government can be brought down in minutes and the case is not different in local body polls as well.

Though, Tripathi is seen as a turncoat politician, his allegation is expected to come as a huge embarrassment to the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government that came to power in 2020 after the Congress government led by Kamal Nath toppled following the exit of Jyotiraditya Scindia and his loyalists.

Responding to Tripathi's statement against his own party, senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh said that there was someone in the BJP who has shown spine to speak truth. Singh also congratulated him for exposing the pain of thousands of contestants.

"Democracy has been throttled openly by the presiding officers," the Congress leader said.

He won from Maihar in 2003 as a candidate of the Samajwadi Party, as the Congress candidate in 2013, as a BJP candidate in the 2016 by-polls and again on a BJP ticket in 2018.

He was among the two BJP MLAs who voted along with the MLAs of then ruling Congress on a bill in Vidhan Sabha in July 2019.