BJP's Omprakash Yadav blames factionalism in CM's constituency for Nagpur graduates' poll loss

After the BJP's defeat in the Nagpur graduates' constituency election, party leader Omprakash Yadav has given his view on the reasons. Yadav, described as a close confidant of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, said there was deep resentment among the party's junior workers in the Chief Minister's South-West Nagpur Assembly constituency.

Some senior leaders in the constituency, acting out of self-interest, put several obstacles in the way of junior workers registering graduate voters, and in many places did not let registration happen at all. As a result, in an area where at least 50,000 graduate voters were likely to be added, the BJP could register only 24,000. Yadav said the party had to pay for this in the election.

Yadav said some BJP leaders in the constituency, insisting "if not me, then no one", neither did the voter registration work themselves nor let other workers do it. He alleged that because of this leader's factionalism, the party did not get the votes it expected in the graduates' election. Yadav has demanded that the leader be expelled from the party.

Asked who the leader was, Yadav declined to name the person before the media. He claimed he had already given the necessary information to the party's proper forum. Yadav also said that because of that leader's pressure, many aggrieved party workers are unable to take their grievances to seniors, up to the Chief Minister. According to him, the whole situation had been brought to the Chief Minister's notice.

In Yadav's words, the Chief Minister's constituency has four lakh voters, at least 50 per cent of them graduates, but the BJP could register only 24,000. He said this was why the BJP lost the graduates' election. He said the Chief Minister had given instructions to register graduates in South-West Nagpur, but with little time he could not oversee the work himself. According to Yadav, the work was left to the trust of a few leaders, and that is where things went wrong.

Yadav said he would not name anyone, but that many local leaders in the area feel that if they do not get something, no one else should. He said people could work out for themselves whom he was speaking about. He expressed the hope that the party would act against the leader who is always aggrieved and does not let others work.

Yadav also raised the issue of invalid votes. According to him, 9,000 voters in the Nagpur graduates' constituency invalidated their votes in the same way, by writing '2' against Sudhakar Kohle's name. Yadav said there must be a larger conspiracy behind this, and that party seniors should find out who got it done. He said that as a small worker he would not name anyone, but the party leadership should think about it.