Former Madhya Pradesh minister and four-time Congress MLA from Chhindwara, Dipak Saxena and his supporters have joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Dipak Saxena, a close aide of former Chief Minister Kamal Nath, switched to the saffron camp even after he was urged by the former not to make this move, breaking his 45-year-old ties with him.
Earlier on March 22, his son Ajay Saxena, had also joined the BJP and since then reports were making the rounds that Dipak too will side with the saffron party. Dipak Saxena joined the BJP in the presence of Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav.
Influenced by PM Modi's work
Dipak Saxena, who quit the Congress on March 22, said he was joining the BJP as he was influenced by the works of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, CM Yadav and state BJP chief VD Sharma.
"The Congress has become aimless under Kamal Nath's son Nakul Nath, sitting MP from Chhindwara. My father was being marginalised and the workers too were being ignored in Chhindwara for the last six years. That is why my father took the decision to part ways with the Congress," Ajay Saxena said.
Dipak Saxena had quit his Assembly seat when Kamal Nath became CM in 2018 so that latter could become an MLA.
Dipak entered politics before Kamal Nath came to Chhindwara. For the first time in 1970, Dipak Saxena became the Sarpanch of Rohana Gram Panchayat. After that, he was the Sarpanch of Rohana from 1975 to 1980.
Dipak met Kamal Nath who had come to Chhindwara in 1979 and started emerging as the second biggest star of Chhindwara. Kamal Nath made Dipak Saxena the president of the District Cooperative Bank in 1984 by replacing Lala Sunderlal Jaiswal, one of the biggest names in Congress during that time.
Dipak Saxena remained the president for almost 20 years. Since 1990, Kamal Nath fielded Deepak Saxena from Chhindwara till 2018.
Saxena contested elections seven times and was elected MLA from Chhindwara four times in 1993, 1998, 2008 and 2018. However, in 2018, Dipak left his seat for Chief Minister Kamal Nath. But during his four-time tenure as MLA, he was made PHE minister twice and became a cabinet minister.
Dipak Saxena was also made the Protem Speaker before leaving the legislature for Chief Minister Kamal Nath in 2018.
Another Kamal Nath's loyalist switches to saffron camp
On March 29, Kamal Nath loyalist and Amarwara MLA Kamlesh Pratap Shah crossed over to the BJP. Shah has won the Amarwara seat thrice in a row.
In the November 2023 MP assembly polls, the Congress had won all the seven assembly seats of Chhindwara district. The BJP is making all efforts to ensure it wrests Chhindwara, the only seat the Congress had won in MP in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
Nakul Nath, who has renominated by the Congress, will take on BJP's Vivek Sahu. Polls are scheduled on April 19.
With inputs from PTI
