Ruling BJP claims immunity to Bhuria effect in MP

Bhopal, April 29: The ruling BJP in Madhya Pradesh is unfazed by the change of leadership in the State Congress and feels that the entry of Kantilal Bhuria will not be that beneficial for the grand old party, which is looking to up its prospects in tribal areas.

Main Opposition Congress recently appointed Union Minister for Tribal Welfare, Kantilal Bhuria as the Madhya Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) President replacing senior leader Suresh Pachouri with an aim to revive the party, specially in the tribal areas.

"When Sonia Gandhi's magic did not work in Bihar, then I don't think he will have any effect in Madhya Pradesh as Bhuria's stature is not bigger than that of the Congress President," the State BJP President, Prabhat Jha told PTI.

We have decided not to talk about Bhuria as we believe he will not have any effect in Madhya Pradesh, Jha said.

"The party has a battery of tribal leaders including former MPs, Dilip Singh Bhuria and Faggan Singh Kulaste and the present Tribal Welfare Minister in the State, Vijay Shah among others to counter him," he said.

Leave alone the entire state, Bhuria will not be able to manage his own Ratlam-Jhabua constituency in the 2013 Assembly polls, Jha asserted.

Out of the total five seats in Jhabua and Alirajpur districts, BJP has only one seat in its kitty, while the Opposition Congress holds the remaining four.

But of the total 47 ST reserve seats in the State Assembly, the ruling BJP has 36. While in Lok Sabha, out of the total six seats reserved for ST, four are with the Congress and two with the BJP.

However, in a major upset to the Congress, the BJP has wrested Kukshi assembly seat from the main opposition party in the state which was represented by then Leader of Opposition, late Jamuna Devi.

The BJP government in the state has already launched various welfare schemes for the development of tribal areas to with an eye on its Mission-2013 of coming back to power for the third time in a row.

However, criticising Madhya Pradesh government on the issue of distribution of land rights to the tribals, he said recently at a function in Chhindwara district that the state was unable to implement the central law on the issue and out of the total 4.50 lakh applications, so far, only 90,000 tribals received land ownership papers.

PTI