Gaur has never seen defeat since his first election in 1974 in a by-poll. Gaur was also supported by other BJP MLAs from Bhopal. Some of them supported Gaur publicly; others indirectly. Protests were voiced at the meeting held to draw the strategy for ensuring victory of Bhopal candidate.

According to reports, as soon as the meeting began Babulal Gaur asked the Chief Minister why local MLAs were not consulted in deciding the party candidate from Bhopal. Rameshwar Sharma, another MLA from Bhopal expressed reservation over the visit of Sanjar to his constituency without informing him. Another MLA, Vishwas Sarang expressed his helplessness in extending support to Sanjar. He made it clear that he would not be able to arrange vehicles for Sanjar's campaign. Responding to the protests chief minister made it clear that the selection has been made and therefore no useful purpose would be served by reopening the issue.

The party had withheld announcement of its candidate from Bhopal in view of the fact that it was the first choice of veteran leader Lal Krishna Advani. However, when Advani settled for the Gandhinagar seat, following RSS pressure, the BJP became looking for a new candidate and chose a light-weight Sanjar. The Bhopal seat is being won by the BJP for the last seven general elections and is considered one of the safest seats for the party in the country. The sitting MP Kailash Joshi opted out of the electoral race owing to ill health.

Not only BJP candidate, the Congress candidate is also facing controversy P.C. Sharma, a former Congress MLA is the Bhopal Lok Sabha candidate. His candidature is being opposed by Arif Aqueel, the only sitting Muslim MLA in the MP Assembly.

Bhopal has a dominant presence of Muslim voters. Aqueel feels that some Muslim leader should have been sponsored from Bhopal. He pressed his own claim also.

Both Aqueel and P.C. Sharma are followers of Digvijay Singh but Digvijay Singh failed to persuade Aqueel to lend support to Sharma.

Troubles of both BJP and Congress are not limited to Bhopal alone. Reports of serious resentment are coming from other parts of the state also. At some places, protest have taken a violent turn. A news report says that BJP workers torched party candidate's effigy. This ugly incident took place in Mandsaur. Mandsaur has been a stronghold of the BJP since the first general election. But in the 2009 election, Mandsaur seat was won by Meenakshi Natarajan. She defeated Dr. Laxmi Narayan Pandey, who was six-time MP from this constituency.

There is turmoil within the BJP workers of Mandsaur-Neemuch Lok Sabha constituency in the wake of the ticket being given to Sudhir Gupta, so much so that a section of the party workers burnt his effigy in Mandsaur city as a mark of protest on Saturday afternoon.

The party workers, said to be supporters of BJP Kisan Morcha state president Bansilal Gujar were peeved over the fact that Bansilal was denied ticket. Now they are planning a mega kisan rally in Pipliyamandi, a town in the constituency.

And Bansilal is not the only person who is unhappy with the party's choice. Raghunandan Sharma a very senior leader is also sulking in a big way after he was denied the party ticket, even though he was believed to be one of the two contenders.

Talking to the media, Sharma admitted that he was 'hurt, disappointed and felt humiliated' by what the party had done. But in the same breath he added that he would do nothing that would be detrimental to the party. He said that there is a sense of anguish among the party workers of the region after he was denied ticket. But, he categorically said that he had no plans to contest as an independent. Asked whether he had been assured party ticket, Sharma said, 'When I was denied ticket to Rajya Sabha, I was assured by the top leaders of the party that I would be given ticket for Lok Sabha.'

Another section within the BJP that is angry with the choice of candidate is the one led by Dr. Laxmi Narayan Pandey Though he is suffering from indifferent health and is hard of hearing; Dr. Pandey still wanted to contest or wanted that the ticket be given to his elder son Surendra Pandey. Dr. Pandey's younger son Rajendra Pandey is already MLA from Jaora.

Political watchers say that the anger in Mandsaur-Neemuch area is so apparent because Sudhir Gupta is not well known in the entire area, though he is a resident of Mandsaur. (IPA Service)