BJP mulls reshuffle in MP, VD Sharma & Murlidhar Rao likely to be replaced ahead of LS poll

Bhopal: After registering a resounding victory in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly election and replacing former Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan with new face Mohan Yadav for the state's top job, the central BJP leadership is now mulling a major reshuffle in the unit soon.

Sources in the central BJP told IANS that Madhya Pradesh BJP President V.D. Sharma and in-charge for the state Muralidhar Rao are likely to be replaced with new faces ahead of the Lok Sabha election. Sharma and Rao have completed their three-year tenure and the party is unlikely to give them an extension for a second term.

Sharma (53), the first-time MP from Khajuraho Lok Sabha constituency, was appointed as state BJP president on February 15, 2020, a month before the party was back in power after the Kamal Nath-led Congress government fell following Jyotiraditya Scindia's switching over to the BJP along with 20 party MLAs in March 2020.

Sharma had replaced former MP BJP President Rakesh Singh after the party lost the Assembly election against the Congress in 2018. Singh -- a former MP from Jabalpur -- is now the PWD minister in Chief Minister Mohan’s Yadav’s cabinet.

In 2018, Sharma was then appointed as in-charge for the Vindhya region during the Assembly election and the party had won 24 out of 30 seats there.

Rewa used to be a stronghold of the Congress but the BJP had won all eight seats in 2018. During his three-year tenure as the state president, he re-structured the party and the BJP won 163 out of the 230 Assembly seats in 2023. In Vindhya region, the tally of BJP’s seats rose to 25 against 24 in 2018.

Sharma’s three-year tenure as state president will come to an end on February 15. Importantly, according to the BJP’s constitution for its organisational structure, the tenure of the party’s state president is fixed for three years. However, it has also mentioned that -- “Any eligible member can hold the post of President for two consecutive terms of three years each.”

Sources said that Sharma is unlikely to be given a second tenure as the party wants to free him from these responsibilities so that he can completely focus on his Lok Sabha election. However, it is not sure if Sharma would contest his second Lok Sabha election from Khajuraho or he will be fielded from any other seat. Sources said that Sharma is willing to contest the Lok Sabha election from Bhopal.

Another reason why Sharma is unlikely to be given a second tenure as state president is that, in the past three years, he has made his own set up in the state organisation. Sharma, who started his political career from the ABVP, is said to have built up a strong ground in the state’s politics by pushing his loyalists at crucial posts, and the BJP’s current central leadership won’t allow the politics of factionalism. Also, the BJP won’t like to face the situation it experienced for replacing former CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who over 16 years of his regime, has established himself as the strongest leader in Madhya Pradesh.

Further, Murlidhar Rao, who has been appointed as in-charge for Madhya Pradesh (organisation) in November 2020, is also likely to be replaced. Importantly, during the Assembly election in 2023, the central leadership wasn’t happy with Telangana-based Rao's work in Madhya Pradesh, therefore, his role was cut during the election, said sources.