Kept Waiting For Ticket, Sumitra Mahajan Upset, Skips BJP Event

Sumitra Mahajan will turn 76 next month — crossing the red line of 75 drawn by the BJP for leaders to be in active politics.

Bhopal: The BJP has a problem on hand. Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan is upset after being made to wait for a party ticket from Indore where she has been winning on the trot for last eight times.

The Congress, which hasn’t named a candidate either, claims it will do so within hours of the BJP taking a call.

The problem is that Mahajan will turn 76 next month — crossing the red line of 75 drawn by the BJP for leaders to be in active politics, but followed selectively. The delay in announcement of Mahajan’s name, coupled with broad hints dropped by state party president Rakesh Singh, has created uncertainty over her candidature.

Showing that she is upset, Mahajan skipped an event in Indore where the BJP had made arrangements for showing Narendra Modi’s ‘Main Bhi Chowkidar’ Delhi event. And in another indication that she is not happy, she is among the few senior BJP leaders to have not prefixed Chowkidar to their names on Twitter.

The BJP has named candidates for 18 of the 29 seats in Madhya Pradesh so far. With Indore a BJP bastion, there is no ostensible reason for it not to have featured in the first two lists.

She hinted that she may take the plunge. On Sunday, while not ruling herself out of the race, she told a news agency in Indore, “The organisation will take the right decision at the right time.”

Last week, she said at a party meeting, “It will be either me or Narendra Modi from Indore.” When asked to clarify, she claimed it was meant to be a joke but did not deny the statement.