The town of Raisen in Madhya Pradesh has a peculiar problem.

For a town of its size – just 44,162 residents as per the last census – Raisen has a list of tourist attractions that would warm a historian’s heart. It’s home to the Raisen fort, it’s a stone’s throw from the Sanchi stupa, and it boasts a 200-year-old tradition where a cannon is fired to mark the beginning and end of fasting during Ramzan.

But its problem lies between the bus stand and Sagar road. 

“Have you ever heard of such a thing?” a worker from the Bharatiya Janata Party said indignantly. “Have you ever seen one party have two head offices in the same town?”

There are two BJP “head offices” in Raisen. The first, the original, is near the bus stand. It’s been around for 20 years and BJP district president Rakesh Sharma sits there, holding court over other party workers. 

The second office, located on Sagar road, is much newer. It was set up in 2020 by one Prabhuram Choudhary: a doctor, an MP, and a former Congress leader who had defected to the BJP in 2020 with Jyotiraditya Scindia. 

Choudhary is one of 22 former MLAs, all Scindia loyalists, who jumped ship with him – a faction that toppled the Congress government in the state when they all resigned to leave for the BJP. But three years later, they’re arguably a thorn in Scindia’s side, accused of forming a “party within the party” in the BJP.

Case in point is Raisen, where Choudhary set up Shriram Parisar, the second “head office”. 

“We generally don’t go there. Only Scindia supporters go there,” the BJP worker complained. “They don’t come to the main office. They are not loyal to the party. They are loyal only to Scindia.”

In the three years since Scindia joined the BJP, discontent has grown among party workers. There are whispers about Scindia’s supporters being “favoured” over long-time party workers, sidelining old-timers, and “neglecting” BJP cadre. Workers on the ground in Madhya Pradesh say they have no beef with Scindia, but the seething anger against his “loyalists” is starting to take a toll.