BJP Rajya Sabha MP from Madhya Pradesh quits party; questions ticket distribution for Lok Sabha election

Madhya Pradesh BJP leader resigns, accusing party of corruption and protecting corrupt, raising concerns about candidate selection process.

Senior Madhya Pradesh BJP leader and Rajya Sabha MP Ajay Pratap Singh resigned from the party’s primary membership on March 16, accusing the BJP of being involved in corruption and protecting the corrupt.

Speaking to reporters in Sidhi, Mr. Singh raised concerns about the BJP’s candidate selection process for the upcoming Lok Sabha election. Claiming that there was a “difference between the BJP’s words and deeds”, he said, “I do not find today’s BJP suitable for me.”

He sent his resignation to BJP national president J.P. Nadda and shared it on his X account. “I am resigning from the primary membership of the Bharatiya Janata Party,” he wrote. 

Mr. Singh, whose Rajya Sabha tenure is about to come to an end on April 2, had been eyeing the party’s ticket for the Lok Sabha election from the Sidhi constituency. The BJP, however, has fielded Rajesh Mishra from the seat. Riti Pathak, who had won the seat in 2019, had resigned as an MP after she became an MLA in the November 2023 election to the State Assembly.

Mr. Singh did not, however, disclose if he planned to contest the elections as an independent candidate or join any other political party. The Congress has also announced its candidate from the Sidhi seat: former State Minister Kamleshwar Patel.

Mr. Singh also accused the BJP of indulging in large-scale corruption, and claimed that corrupt people were getting protection within the party. 

“I felt several things in the party during this period [during the BJP’s time in power]. I couldn’t say them when I was in the party, but I can say those things now. Corruption is prevailing in the party on a large scale. Corrupt people are getting protection. Politics has become a medium of business... Rather, we can say that the party has become an adda (hotspot) of political traders,” he said.