Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said on Saturday that he was not "invited" to campaign for Vijaypur polls, where BJP candidate and former minister Ramniwas Rawat lost to Congress' Mukesh Malhotra.
Union Minister Scindia made this remark responding to his absence from campaigning in Vijaypur, the Assembly constituency falling under his home turf Gwalior-Chambal region.
"If I had been called, I would have gone there," he replied when media persons questioned him over his absence from campaigning in the Vijaypur bypolls.
Union Minister Scindia was one of the 40-star campaigners for Vijaypur and Budhni bypolls.
But he also mentioned that the margin of defeat in the Vijaypur bypoll has come down as compared to Assembly elections in November 2023. BJP lost the Vijaypur bypolls by 7,000 votes.
"Party's loss in Vijaypur bypolls needs to be introspected. But the margin of defeat this time has reduced against the previous election, which means, BJP's votes have increased," Union Minister Scindia added.
Significantly, Rawat had contested the previous Assembly election on Congress' symbol and had won Vijaypur seat with a margin of more than 17,000 votes. However, later he resigned from the party and state Assembly and joined the BJP.
After the defeat at Vijaypur bypolls, Rawat had charged that he was "sabotaged" by some top BJP leaders.
He also had claimed that core BJP workers were "mislead".
"Some people felt that their influence (in BJP) would diminish if I won the by-elections. I was not defeated by the people in the Assembly constituency. I was defeated due to the sabotage," Rawat had said.
Rawat's statement caused political controversy within the BJP and State BJP unit chief V. D. Sharma called an in-camera meeting at party headquarters to control the situation.
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