Digvijaya Singh royally snubbed by Rahul Gandhi at Mandsaur rally, Madhya Pradesh

Former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister and Congress General Secretary Digvijaya Singh received a royal snub from the royalty of Congress in his home state on June 6^th. Congress President Rahul Gandhi was in Mandsaur addressing the farmers who had assembled to pay respect to their brothers who had died at the hands of police firing a year before. The stage was set for Rahul Gandhi and the Congress to kickstart their campaigns for the Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections which are scheduled to be held this year. Rahul Gandhi gave a loaded speech at the rally, promised everything from the earth to the moon to the crowd, added a few dabs of misinformation and wrong facts to his speech and very conveniently sidelined his political guru Digvijaya Singh. Congress protégé Rahul Gandhi sidelined his political guru Digvijaya Singh throughout the entire length of his speech, that too in Digvijay Singh’s home state. Not just Rahul Gandhi but even Kamal Nath and Jyotiraditya Scindia along with MPs from Chhindwara and Guna too did not give any importance to the two time Chief Minister from Madhya Pradesh. It is important to note here that Rahul Gandhi had earlier allotted the posts of State President and Campaign Committee Chief to Kamal Nath and Jyotiraditya Scindia  respectively. 

Digvijaya Singh had been appointed with a very important task by the Congress party of grooming Rahul Gandhi in the aftermath of his loss to the Uma Bharti led BJP government in the state. Digvijaya Singh excelled at the job and the effects are for all to see, as Rahul Gandhi has become an ‘expert’ at committing farces in the political scene. This achievement of Digvijaya Singh was overlooked by the Congress party which snubbed him further. The 10 year retirement from active politics didn’t work out too well for Digvijaya Singh as he had more time in his hands to indulge in various mindless tactics. His attempts at minority appeasement and towards concocting a false ‘saffron terrorism’ story disgusted everyone. He made the Congress look like a party which was made for, by and of the minority and even the minorities rejected his over-appeasing mannerisms. 

Digvijaya also messed up the state elections big time as Congress lost successive elections for which he was the General Secretary. The failure to form government in Goa even after emerging as the single largest party was another blunder by Digvijaya Singh; it hurt him and Congress the most. Congress took away the charge of the General Secretary post of the All India Congress Committee from Digvijaya too, leaving him with just the post of Madhya Pradesh co-ordination committee. Congress has taken away all it can from Digvijaya Singh, and if the look on Digvijaya’s face and his body language is taken as a sign it might not be good for the Congress party.

Digvijaya Singh was snubbed in Mandsaur not only by Rahul Gandhi but also by Jyotiraditya Scindia and Kamal Nath in their speeches. Digvijaya in the future could hurt Congress in a very grievous manner if he sets his mind to it, just as Shehzad Poonawala had done. Congress leaders should know better than irking Digvijaya Singh. BJP could benefit from Digvijaya Singh’s wrath if it is directed towards the Congress leaders who are going too far to sideline the senior leader.