Bharatiya Janata Party general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya on Wednesday said he was not contesting the coming Madhya Pradesh assembly elections only to become an MLA, and the party will give him some important responsibility.
The ruling party sprang a surprise last month when it named Vijayvargiya, who is not an MLA at present, as its candidate from Indore-1 seat.
Notably, chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan or his constituency did not figure in the three lists of candidates released by the party so far.
“I assure you that a BJP government will be formed again in the state. I am not here only to become an MLA. I will get some bigger responsibility from the party,” Vijayvargiya said, speaking at a program under the state’s Ladli Bahna scheme for girls.
“When I get a big responsibility, I will do big work too. I assure you that we have carried out development and will do it further,” he said.
Speaking at a party program elsewhere, Vijayvargiya said an officer who does not do what he (Vijayvargiya) asks to do over phone “is not born in the state” (there is no such officer).
“I used to speak less about Indore’s affairs in the last 10-12 years because I kept roaming outside, but as soon as my name was announced as a BJP candidate, half the officials lost their sleep, he added.
Congress leader Jitu Patwari, meanwhile, took a jibe at Vijayvargiya, saying he is a “big leader” who was going to contest a “small election”.
Vijayvargiya is among the senior BJP leaders who are considered to be the contenders for the post of chief minister if the BJP retains power in Madhya Pradesh.
He had won assembly elections six times in a row between 1990 and 2013 from different seats in Indore district, but did not contest in 2018.
