Bhopal, Jul 15 (IANS): Two days after panchayat and urban body elections were held in Madhya Pradesh, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party faces serious allegations from its own MLA, who has alleged that the party used government machinery for its own benefit.
Narayan Tripathi, a four-time BJP MLA from Maihar in Satna district, said on Thursday that the government employees right from a 'Patwari' to the topmost level have been seen campaigning for the party during the recent local state elections.
"I am not against the BJP, but what is happening actually pains me," Tripathi added.
He said, "I have been touring this area (Maihar). Whichever official from the rank of Patwari to the top, all have been seen campaigning for a particular party. The officials are working to garner votes for the BJP. I am a BJP MLA but I feel anguished and disturbed when I see such occurrences. In this country today a government can be brought down in two minutes. This is happening in local body polls also. This should not happen."
The allegations have 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 former Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia and his loyalists.
Reacting to Tripathi's allegations, senior Congress leader and Rajya Sabha MP Digvijaya Singh said, "There is someone in BJP who dared to speak the truth. Congratulations and thank you Narayan Tripathi ji, you have exposed the pain of thousands of contestants. Democracy has been throttled openly by the presiding officers."
Tripathi, who has been demanding the formation of Vindhya Pradesh from the last several years, had criticised the BJP at several occasions in the past as well.
He won from Maihar in 2003 as a Samajwadi Party candidate, as the Congress candidate in 2013, as a BJP candidate in the 2016 bypolls 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 against a bill in state Assembly in July 2019.