Workers' leader Prabhat Jha's demise leaves a string of memories for MP BJP

Bhopal: Bharatiya Janata Party veteran and former Rajya Sabha MP Prabhat Jha's (67) death early on Friday left thousands of his party workers in Madhya Pradesh grief-stricken, especially those who grew up as politicians during his tenure as state BJP chief.

The journalist-turned-politician was made in-charge for the state media and the state unit president in 2010. At present, there are over a dozen BJP MLAs in the Madhya Pradesh assembly, who grew up as politicians during his tenure as state president.

He was fondly called the president of the workers and not leaders, and several party workers who spoke to IANS agreed with this term. The reason was that he was accessible to party workers at any time, and it remained like this until he flew to Delhi after his health deteriorated suddenly a couple of weeks ago.

When he was made the party head for Madhya Pradesh, it was the second consecutive term of the BJP in the government.

When the party was in power for the second consecutive term, as state president he could have relaxed and run the party sitting in the party headquarters.

Instead he decided to restructure the party and started touring the state widely. Jha, along with some BJP workers, walked from one end to the other which helped him to understand the party's real position in every district.

Lokendra Parasar, who was made in-charge of the media cell of the MP BJP unit after Prabhat Jha was elevated as the state unit president, recalled, "I was media in-charge for MP BJP for over seven years, but I felt that Prabhat Jha's impact was still there."

Jha was elected a Rajya Sabha member from MP in 2008 and remained in the Upper House till 2020. He also served as the BJP’s national vice president in 2015.

However, he was not given any specific role in the state BJP for the last few years.

Last year, when the assembly election was getting closer, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who was on a visit to Bhopal, suddenly reached Prabhat Jha's residence in the city.

Amit Shah's visit to his house brought a change in Jha's politics. Though he was not given any role officially, Jha became active and started reviewing the party's preparations on his own.

His position in the MP BJP can be gauged from the fact that when Mohan Yadav was announced as the successor to Shivraj Singh Chouhan as the chief minister on December 4 last year, Yadav made the first courtesy visit to Jha's residence within the next few hours.

Since then, those BJP leaders and workers who had maintained a distance from him for the last few years, had started visiting Jha again.. Responding to IANS about his political career, Jha had once said, "I am satisfied with what I got from the party."

Several senior BJP leaders, including Chief Minister Mohan Yadav and state BJP chief V. D. Sharma expressed their condolences, saying that the demise of Jha was a personal loss for them.

His last rites will be performed at his birthplace, Koriyahi village in Sitamarhi district of Bihar on Saturday, his son Aytan Jha told IANS over the phone.