In an unusual move, a Bharatiya Janata Party MLA from Madhya Pradesh has written to party president JP Nadda seeking a complete overhaul in the government as well as the state unit of the party. Citing the example of Gujarat where the BJP had undertaken an exercise similar to what the party’s MLA from Maihar seat in Satna district, Narayan Tripathi, has made the demand arguing that a “total change” is necessary to ensure that the party returns to power in Madhya Pradesh again.

While Shivraj Singh Chouhan is the Chief Minister of the state, VD Sharma heads the state organisational unit of the party. In the elections due in Madhya Pradesh a year from now, the BJP will be seeking a return to power. It had lost the assembly elections in 2018 by a thin margin to Congress but managed to form a government after Jyotiraditya Scindia walked out of the 15-month-old Kamal Nath government with 22 MLAs pushing it into a minority. Kamal Nath resigned as the chief minister ahead of the floor test in 2020, paving way for the return of Chouhan as CM and the BJP government back to power.

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“Small workers like me who are always the party’s well-wishers and want the party to again form a government in Madhya Pradesh on the lines of Gujarat, urge that taking into account the wishes of party workers, there should be a total change in the government and organisation of the state,” Tripathi wrote in his letter to Nadda.

The BJP had undertaken a similar exercise a year ahead of the elections in Gujarat when it replaced Vijay Rupani as the Chief Minister of the state and replaced the entire cabinet. The party also dropped 45 sitting MLAs in the elections. A resounding 43 of them emerged victorious.

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“This is needed for the start of a new era in the state, so that anti-incumbency among the people is settled and new people are given an opportunity. (There should be) A new methodology for the running of the government and organisation, as a result of which a victory similar to Gujarat can be repeated in MP,” Tripathi further wrote. The BJP’s loss in the 2018 elections brought to an end Chouhan’s uninterrupted 15-year rule in the state. The party has been in power in the state since 2003, barring the 15-month hiatus when Kamal Nath was the Chief Minister.