Bhopal, Dec 20 (IANS) Hundreds of supporters of former central minister Sartaj Singh created an uproar at the Madhya Pradesh headquarters of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) here Saturday as he was not included in Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s new cabinet.
Sartaj Singh’s supporters barged into the state BJP headquarters shouting slogans against the party’s state leadership and Chouhan. Some of them even waved shoes and said that the Chouhan government would not last long if their leader was not inducted in the ministry.
Party Vice President Brijendra Sisodia tried to pacify them but to no avail. They cooled down only when Sartaj Singh, accompanied by state party president Narendra Singh Tomar, reached the party office and appealed to them to disperse.
Sartaj Singh, who had defeated central minister Arjun Singh from the Hoshangabad Lok Sabha constituency, had resigned as MP and contested from the Sivni Malwa constituency in last month’s assembly elections. He won with a margin of over 25,000 votes.
“He defeated senior Congress leader and seven-time MLA Hajarilal Raghuvanshi and therefore he deserved a berth in the cabinet,” said one of his supporters.