Gaur quits MP Cabinet as BJP sticks to age limit rule

Former chief minister, home minister and 10-time MLA Babulal Gaur of the Bharatiya Janata Party has been asked by the party high command to resign from the state Cabinet, despite his protest.

Apart from him, Public Works Minister Sartaj Singh has also been asked to step down. "The age bar rule applies to everybody, the party high command has told me," Gaur said after tendering his resignation.

Party sources told Business Standard that Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan would go in for a Cabinet expansion and drop those aged above 75.

Initially, Gaur refused to resign, saying he would only take orders from the party high command when party's state affairs in-charge Vinay Shastrabuddhe asked him to resign. "I told our party's state in-charge Sahastrabuddhe that I will take orders from party high command. He then arranged a phone call and I was told that the age bar rule is applicable to all in the party. Following which, I resigned from the state home minister's post. Now I am only an MLA," Gaur said here. Gaur is now 86.

Singh, who comes from Siwni Malwa constituency, also resigned from his post after initial reluctance. "I registered my verbal protest that this decision would send a wrong signal among party workers and local people who have reposed faith in me. However, I have resigned," he said.

On the other hand, after the expansion state Chouhan said, "Both the leaders, Gaur and Sartaj, performed excellently with honesty and discipline. They have sent their resignations and I would forward it to the governor for acceptance."

If this rule is implemented, party sources say, the list of those who have crossed 75 includes Union Minority Affairs Minister Najma Heptulla, who is 76 now, and Kalraj Mishra, the minister for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, who turns 75 next month.

In an innocuous query, BJP President Amit Shah visited Bhopal earlier this year asked Gaur about his age, Gaur said, "Mein Sirf 84 saal ka hoon (I am 84 years only)."

Many local BJP leaders, including some Cabinet ministers, were present at the Raja Bhoj airport when the conversation took place. Speculations and rumours were rife in the city on Thursday that Gaur, who has been elected from Bhopal's Govindpura Assembly segment, could be installed as Assembly speaker or appointed a governor. "Maybe, he would join the margdarshak mandal at the state like L K Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi," one of Gaur's detractor quipped.

Gaur is known for his hold on the state capital. His daughter-in-law, Krishna Gaur, was the city's mayor. When he was minister for urban administration department between 2008 and 2013 he was known to summon inter-ministerial meetings. During his tenure in the last decade Gaur had a history of courting controversies for his remarks. In January, on his return from a tour to Chennai he made a said the crime rate against women in Chennai was because people there prefer "full clothing." Recently, women's rights groups were up in arms when he said "rape is sometimes right and sometimes wrong".