Subsequently, angered over Kalra’s telephonic conversation with the IMC employee and utterances for Yadav, men allegedly loyal to Yadav barged into Kalra’s house and misbehaved with the latter’s family on Friday.Coming to know about the armed men having barged into his house on Friday, when Kalra apologized to Yadav for his utterances and requested to stop the armed men from misbehaving with his family, Yadav allegedly used abusive language with him in their telephonic conversation. The audio clip of the conversation between Kalra and Yadav has gone viral and is being probed by the police.Jitu Yadav, meanwhile, has alleged that people were angered with fellow party corporator Kalra’s misbehavior with the IMC employee over the phone recently, which might have provoked the alleged incident. Yadav also met with state’s CM Dr Mohan Yadav and submitted a memorandum about the entire series of incidents which unfolded recently. “The CM is the head of our family. We hope justice will be done to all,” Yadav told journalists recently. Kalra’s family accompanied by Indore-4 MLA Malini Gaur too had met the MP CM in Indore on Sunday.Kalra is a corporator from Ward Bo. 65 of Indore-4 assembly constituency represented by four-time sitting BJP MLA and ex-Indore mayor Malini Gaur. While Kalra is considered Gaur’s loyalist, Jitu Yadav, the mayor-in-council (MIC) member of IMC from a ward in Indore-2 assembly segment, is considered a trusted follower of four-time Indore-2 BJP MLA Ramesh Mendola. Mendola is known for long to be close to MP cabinet minister and ex-Indore mayor Kailash Vijayvargiya.Both Indore-4 and Indore-2 assembly constituencies, despite being BJP impregnable fortresses since early 1990s, are held by politicians from two competing lobbies of the ruling party in Indore. Also known as ‘BJP’s Ayodhya in Indore’ the Indore-4 seat since 1993 has been held by the Gaur family (including Laxman Singh Gaur and after his death by wife Malini Gaur). The Indore-2 assembly seat (which is the other saffron fortress) has been with MP minister Kailash Vijayvargiya and later his trusted man Ramesh Mendola since 1993. While Mendola retained his seat in 2023 for the fourth time, his political mentor Kailash Vijayvargiya wrested the Indore-1 seat from the Congress.The state BJP president VD Sharma, when asked about the recent incident in Indore, said, “BJP is a systematic organization, which doesn’t look into who’s X and who’s Y. The party’s disciplinary committee will look into the matter and act appropriately.”The Indore City BJP unit chief Gaurav Randive, meanwhile, said that notices have been served by the party to both the sides, who’ve been given two days to respond.Why are developments in Indore particularly concerning for the BJP?Indore is the nucleus of western MP’s communally sensitive Malwa region, which for decades has been the RSS and BJP’s strong base. Currently, the MP CM Dr Mohan Yadav is himself the guardian minister of Indore district, whose politics has largely been dominated by his senior cabinet minister Kailash. The urban development and housing minister Vijayvargiya is the guardian minister of adjoining Dhar district.The Indore Lok Sabha seat, particularly, has been won by the BJP since 1989, including eight times by ex-LS Speaker Sumitra Mahajan. The party’s second-time MP Shankar Lalwani won the seat in 2024 general elections in a one-sided battle with 10.08 lakh votes, which was the party’s largest winning margin anywhere in the country.In the 2023 Vidhan Sabha polls also all nine assembly seats of Indore district were won by the BJP, whose candidates have also been winning the city’s mayor polls for the last 22 years.According to a senior BJP leader from Indore, “The recent developments in the party are particularly disturbing, as it’s not just being seen by watchers as a corporator vs corporator battle. If not dealt prudently, it may well start being perceived as a tussle between Indore-2 and Indore-4 BJP.”
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