Bhopal: The Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led Madhya Pradesh government’s delay in accepting Sub-Divisional Magistrate Nisha Bangre’s resignation seems to be what’s holding up the Congress’s announcement of their candidate for the Amla assembly constituency, reserved for Scheduled Caste (SC).
The party has already revealed candidates for 229 of the state’s total 230 seats.
Bangre, a 2017 batch state civil service officer, had resigned in June after reportedly being denied permission by the government to attend an event, the International All Religion Peace Conference.
She has now moved the court, seeking intervention to direct the government to accept her resignation.
Speaking to ThePrint, Bangre said, “I have met (Congress leaders) Kamal Nath and Digvijaya Singh on multiple occasions and have been assured that soon after my resignation is accepted, I will be given a ticket.”
Congress leaders confirmed the same to ThePrint. “We are just waiting for the court’s order. If Bangre’s resignation is accepted, she will be given a ticket from Amla. If it doesn’t work out till the last date of nominations, we may allot the ticket to Manoj Malve, who had lost from here in 2018,” said a senior Congress leader who wished to not be named.
There are five assembly seats in Betul district. Of these, barring Amla, four are held by Congress.
The party’s local leadership in Betul, though, is apprehensive of Bangre’s entry as an MLA candidate in Amla. “If the high command wants to give Nisha a ticket, we will have to put our weight behind her. But if her resignation is not confirmed, then Manoj Malve should be given a ticket as there is a great chance of him winning this time,” said Vikram Uikey, Betul Congress’s vice-president.
In 2018, BJP’s Dr Yogesh Pandagre had garnered 73,481 votes, defeating Congress’s Malve by a margin of 19,197 votes in Amla, while Gondwana Gantantra Party’s (GGP) Rakesh Mahale had walked away with 15,827 votes.
Uikey, district president for GGP, switched to the Congress along with 25 others in March this year. “There is a general sentiment of ‘badlav’ (change) in the district, and GGP’s divided tribal votes will consolidate in favour of Malve,” said Uikey.
Bangre, though, is said to have goodwill in Amla — where she was posted as deputy collector in 2018 — because of the work she did there during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Being the returning officer in Amla during the 2018 assembly elections and then for the Lok Sabha elections, I interacted with all political parties. However, after I was treated badly by the government under political pressure, my progression towards the Congress felt natural,” she told ThePrint.
After three years in Amla, Bangre was transferred to Bhopal in October 2021 and then to Chhatarpur as the sub-divisional magistrate in November 2022.
Advocate Varun Tankha, who is representing Bangre in the Madhya Pradesh High Court, said: “The government is not accepting her resignation citing a pending departmental inquiry about the fact that Nisha, while on child care leave, sought permission to attend an all-religion programme at her house which violated the code of conduct governing state officials. But our simple plea is that ‘we accept the charges; you accept the resignation’. However, the government, in a bid to delay the process, is citing pending departmental inquiry.”
“The court has directed the state government to decide on her resignation on or before 23 October as the matter will come up for hearing a week after that,” he added.
The last date of filing nomination for the state elections is 30 October and voting is set to be held on 17 November.
ThePrint reached the additional chief secretary, general administration department, for a comment and was redirected to principal secretary Deepti Goud Mukherjee. ThePrint reached her via calls. This report will be updated if and when a response is received.
Who is Nisha Bangre
Originally from Balaghat district, Bangre completed her engineering from the Samrat Ashok Institute of Technology, Vidisha, in 2014.
However, following a brief stint in the corporate world, she decided to return to Madhya Pradesh after being selected for the state services in 2017.
Born to a teacher in Balaghat, Bangre credits her parents for instilling in her a sense of nationalism and a determination to work towards welfare of all with a secular mindset.
Working as the SDM in Chhatarpur, Bangre, while on child care leave in May, had sought permission from the government to attend an ‘International All Religion Peace Conference’ being organised on 25 June in her home being constructed in Amla as a house warming event.
A Buddhist, Bangre claims she flew in the ashes of Dr Baba Saheb Ambedkar from Sri Lanka for the event and invited different religious leaders from 11 different countries.
“When denied permission to attend, I resigned on 22 June itself and went ahead with the scheduled programme. I was talking about secularism and working with all religions at a time when the ruling BJP wants only one ideology to prevail which has led to me being harassed,” said Bangre.
“I know of at least four government officials whose resignations were accepted within one day and they joined the ruling party (BJP) the same day, but here I am still struggling. I have not had the time to campaign in the constituency and it might be a little late in the day for me to contest elections this time,” said Bangre, adding that this, however, will not weaken her commitment to work for the society as she has been doing even when she was a corporate employee in Gurugram.
In October this year — with a handful of people, including members of her family, and the book of Indian Constitution in hand — Bangre set out on a ‘Nyay Pad Yatra’, traveling about 335 km from Chhatarpur to the Chief Minister’s Office in Bhopal, demanding that her resignation be accepted.
When stopped in Bhopal, she sat on fast unto death seeking acceptance of her resignation but was arrested for obstructing traffic as she did not possess a permission for the rally.
(Edited by Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri)
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