10 BJP MPs-turned-MLAs quit Parliament

Aditi Tandon

New Delhi, December 6

Ten of the 12 BJP MPs who won the recent elections in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh resigned today with two more set to put in their papers soon to play a prominent role in the states.

Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar and Union Minister of State for Jal Shakti and Food Processing Prahlad Singh Patel were among the 10 MPs who resigned. Minister of State for Tribal Affairs Renuka Singh, who won from her seat in Chhattisgarh, will also resign soon.

The exit of the union ministers will pave the way for a Union Cabinet rejig, even if small, on the eve of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Of the 10 MPs who resigned today, veteran Kirori Lal Meena is from the Rajya Sabha. The rest are all Lok Sabha MPs.

These include Rakesh Singh, Udaipratap Singh and Riti Pathak from MP; Rajya Vardhan Rathor and Diya Kumari from Rajasthan; and Arun Sao and Gomti Sai from Chhattisgarh. Renuka Singh from Chhattisgarh and newly elected Tijara MLA Balak Nath are yet to submit their papers.

Presiding officers of the two Houses are learnt to have accepted the resignations.

All 10 MPs are senior party leaders with sources indicating that they could land prominent roles in the running of state governments.

The names of Arun Sao and Renuka Singh have been doing the rounds as potential CM-ship contenders in Chhattisgarh while Patel and Tomar are among those in contention in MP and Diya Kumari and Balak Nath in Rajasthan. All MPs met Prime Minister Narendra Modi after resigning today. They were accompanied by BJP chief JP Nadda.

The BJP had fielded 18 MPs in Rajasthan, MP and Chhattisgarh of whom 12 won. While the BJP’s strategy of fielding sitting MPs worked in the Hindi heartland, it failed in Telangana where all three MPs it fielded — Karimnagar MP Sanjay Bandi, Nizamabad MP Arvind Dharampuri and Adilabad MP Soyam Rao lost.