‘Mathura, Gyanvyapi, hijab not poll issues; MP contest on development,' says BJP’s P Muralidhar Rao

The dust from the Karnataka polls is yet to settle as Congress and BJP prepare to square up again for a direct contest in three other states later this year: Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan. The BJP lost elections in all three in 2018 but clawed back to power in MP after defections in the Congress. P Muralidhar Rao, BJP’s Madhya Pradesh in-charge, spoke to DH’s Sumit Pande about what is coming up in that state.

The BJP has been in power in Madhya Pradesh for almost two decades now. How difficult is it to fend off incumbency?

As far as Madhya Pradesh is concerned, in the last two decades, there have been a number of issues on which the BJP government and the BJP as a political party, have worked and created significant transformations. Just ask anyone about the situation—be it rural roads, urban roads, or national highways—during Digvijay Singh’s government. When you are in power for long and people’s expectations are rising, challenges are bound to be present. There may be personal or leader-specific anti-incumbency in certain areas. But the BJP as a political party is aware, conscious, and capable of adjusting to these needs.

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Will the outcome of the recent Karnataka elections have an impact on the MP polls?

Have Congress cadres got some kind of boost after Karnataka? I don’t know. But I do not think there is any scope for the impact of that outcome on the Madhya Pradesh electorate.

The positioning of the Congress party and its leadership in Karnataka and MP is completely different. Similarly, the legacy of the BJP governments in the two states is not the same. I do not see any challenge coming from the Karnataka outcome that is going to impact the Madhya Pradesh elections.

The BJP formed the government in MP in 2020 with the help of defectors from the Congress. Has this had an impact on the party’s image?

The one-and-a-half-year performance of the Kamal Nath government was such that our cadres welcomed the change. It was a partisan government. They were dividing to rule and harassing our cadres.

Definitely, since we formed the government, certain challenges have arisen. But our government has delivered in the last two and a half years. We have mobilised the tribals and scheduled castes, clearing any doubts and ambiguities in due course.

Is the BJP facing a problem of plenty in MP, as Congress MLAs who defected to the BJP will be seeking nominations? Would your cadres be comfortable working with them?

There are challenges due to this kind of arrangement. When people join the party from outside, their way of functioning and culture may create conflicts. There may be some discomfort sometimes and in certain areas, but I don’t see any such problems in MP.

We are in power both in Delhi and MP. We have been trying to identify leaders who have worked for the party for the past few decades and who may have been adversely affected by the entry of new people. We are trying to create other avenues for them. The BJP is a cadre-based party, and we value our long-standing workers.

Recently, you have articulated a position on the Gyanvyapi mosque at Varanasi. Are you saying that it is time to revisit the 1991 Places of Worship Act that bars changes in the status of any place of worship as it existed on August 15, 1947?

Presently, the matter is subjudice. Gyanvyapi and Mathura are not ordinary places; they are sacred. They are central to the Hindu core belief system. Not just belief systems, but historically, there are a number of arguments in defence of the Hindu side’s arguments. Issues are now being examined by the courts. Our judiciary is very mature and competent, and they also understand the sentiments of the people. They will definitely take
a judicious view.

In Karnataka, the BJP raised some emotive issues like hijab and halal. It did not have any electoral impact. Will the BJP raise Mathura and Kashi in the Madhya Pradesh elections?

What outsiders say about the BJP is their point of view. But as far as the BJP leadership is concerned, we never view Mathura, Gyanvyapi, or hijab as electoral issues. We do not use these issues for electoral gain. These are deeply cultural, civilisational, and Constitutional issues.

Religion is not an issue in electoral politics. Whenever we have done that, we have only responded. If Congress is interested in doing vote bank politics in order to create a division so as to harvest votes from a certain community, then the BJP as a political party has
to respond.

In MP, we have been winning for the last two decades, and we have enough space and issues to go to the people on our performance, development, service, and even issues related to law and order.