Madhya Pradesh Polls: BJP MLA Narayan Tripathi Quits Party, Says New Outfit To Push For Vindh Statehood

Narayan Tripathi said his party would go into the Madhya Pradesh elections in the hope of defeating the ruling party in the Vindh region.

New Delhi: Accusing the BJP of “double standards”, four-time MLA Narayan Tripathi on Friday formally quit the party saying that his newly launched outfit will fight the upcoming Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections on the plank of statehood for the Vindh region, news agency PTI reported.

Speaking to the agency on Friday, the former BJP leader said his party would go into the elections in the hope of defeating the ruling party in the region in the November 17 elections.

“I have resigned the BJP's primary membership as well as from the assembly. The BJP practices double standards. Its deeds are far different from its words,” said Tripathi, who happens to be a Brahmin leader wielding significant clout in the Vindh region.

Tripathi, who was twice elected to the Assembly on a BJP ticket, had previous stints with the Congress and the Samajwadi Party.

A former state president of the Samajwadi Party, the Brahmin leader was elected as a member of the state legislature on SP and Congress tickets as well.

According to PTI, his ties with the BJP’s state leadership took a turn for the worse since March 2020, after he was accused of cosying up to the Congress.

“My priority is to weaken the BJP and ensure that it loses, particularly in the Vindh region. I am not a B-team of any (rival) political party. The main aim of the VJP is to work for a separate state of Vindh, which is a long-cherished demand of the people in the region,” the former BJP leader told PTI.

In the last Assembly elections in 2018, the BJP, faring below expectations elsewhere, performed significantly better in the Vindh region bordering Uttar Pradesh, winning 24 out of 30 seats.

While the Congress won the previous Assembly elections in the state, with Kamal Nath taking oath as the chief minister, the government was reduced to a minority after then party leader Jyotiraditya Scindia triggered a rebellion in the ranks and joined the saffron camp with a band of loyalists.

The Congress government eventually fell and the BJP came to power, with Shivraj Singh Chouhan returning as chief minister.