Kailash Vijayvargiya, A Cabinet Minister In Mohan Yadav Govt, Keen To Go To RS

Mr. Vijayvargiya’s recent meeting with Union home minister Amit Shah at Delhi has given further credence to the speculations that the senior BJP leader is lobbying hard with the Central leadership to secure Rajya Sabha nomination from the party to move to Delhi.

“Mr. Vijayvargiya held discussions with Mr. Shah at Delhi. But what transpired during the meeting is yet to be known”, a senior BJP functionary told this newspaper on Wednesday.

Mr. Vijayvargiya also met state BJP president Hemant Khandelwal recently and was believed to have discussed with him on the prospective party candidates for the ensuing biennial polls in Madhya Pradesh, he added.

It is no secret in the political circle in Madhya Pradesh that Mr. Vijayvargiya is not feeling comfortable in the Mohan Yadav cabinet ever since Indore witnessed water contamination tragedy in which two dozen people died around three months ago.

Mr. Vijayvargiya represented Indore seat in the Assembly.

The tragedy was attributed to the delay in clearance of drinking water projects in Indore.

However, the state BJP leadership was said to have initiated steps to make a patch up between Mr. Vijayvargiya and Mr. Yadav.

Sources said that Mr. Vijayvargiya’s name figured in the list of a dozen candidates sent by the state BJP to the Central party for scrutiny.

However, Vijayvargiya’s camp has preferred to keep mum on the matter.

Other prospective RS nominees of the party recommended by the state BJP to the Central party for scrutiny included former minister Arvind Bhadoria, former minister Narottam Mishra, and former Union minister Suresh Pachauri.

Three RS seats from Madhya Pradesh are falling vacant in June following closure of tenures of three MPs, Digvijay Singh (Congress), Union minister George Kurien and Sumer Singh Solanki (both from BJP) in the Upper House, necessitating the June 18 biennial elections.

The ruling BJP is in a comfortable position to nominate two members to the RS while Congress is in a position to send one member to the Upper House.

There is apprehension in the Congress that BJP may try to win the third seat by engineering cross voting in the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) in the polls.

The BJP however is yet to open its cards as to whether the party would field a third candidate.