In a fascinating turn of events, a closed door, late-night meeting between former Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Congress MP, Jyotiraditya Scindia electrified the political corridors.
On Monday, the duo had a sudden meeting which lasted for around 40 minutes and then addressed the press afterward. While talking to the crowd of the journalists, both the leaders emphasized that it was nothing but a ‘saujanya bhent’ (courtesy meet) but added that “the talks were good”.
While interacting with the media, the duo openly talked about various issues. When a media person asked Scindia about BJP’s ‘Maaf karo Maharaja’ jibe on him during campaigning for assembly elections, Congress stalwart said, “I am not a person who lives with bitterness in relations throughout life. I believe in ‘raat gayi, baat gayi’. There is a tussle during elections, but it vanishes after results. We believe in taking everyone along”.
On Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s role as an opposition leader, the Congress MP further said, “The Opposition should always assist and praise the good work of the government and point out lapses. We expect the opposition to be helpful and constructive.”
On the same tone ‘Mama’ too, said, “Koi gila nahin, koi shikwa nahin, (I have no complaint or grudge)”. Shivraj even came out to drop Scindia to his car. This out of the blue meeting sparked a ton of speculations.
Interestingly, there are rumors that Scindia is not happy on the selection of Kamal Nath as the CM of the state. Not only that, as soon as Kamal Nath was projected as CM, the Jyotiraditya Scindia faction got annoyed and reached Delhi in a show of strength. Media reports suggest that Jyotiraditya Scindia was never happy with Kamal Nath’s projection as CM of Madhya Pradesh and just grudgingly accepted the fate.
Another fascinating fact is that the meeting happened at the time when Kamal Nath is away in Davos to attend a conference of the World Economic Forum. In order to cover up this dissent in the party, Congress spokesperson lightened the issue saying, “It was courtesy meeting where Scindia sought Chouhan’s support in developmental works”.
However, BJP took a dig at the grand old party and claimed that Jyotiraditya Scindia is unhappy with the party. “Such courtesy meetings have taken place between Chouhan and the CM and Chouhan and Digvijaya Singh as well, so why so much fuss within the Congress party? Even a courtesy call is upsetting the Congress leaders,” said BJP spokesperson Rajnish Agrawal.
With the latest turn of events, it seems that a few big switching of sides may occur prior to the Lok Sabha elections. Another noteworthy fact is that Scindia is a close aide of Congress president Rahul Gandhi. But since the party picked veteran Kamal Nath as the CM of MP, he is reported to be disenchanted with the party. Whatsoever be the scenario, the 2019 general election will surely be a nail-biting one.