It did not take much intellect to make out that the Congress unit in Madhya Pradesh never enjoyed bonhomie or cohesiveness in the recent past. However, BJP National General Secretary, Kailash Vijayvargiya has made a startling claim which shows that the Congress might be headed towards even bigger trouble in the coming days. The senior BJP leader has claimed that supporters of senior Congress leaders, Digivijaya Singh and Jyotiaditya Scindia have approached him in order to topple the current Kamal Nath government in the state.
Addressing farmers’ agitation rally in the city of Indore, Vijayvargiya said, “The representatives of Digvijaya Singh, Jyotiaditya Scindia and Suresh Pachouri approached me and said that Kailash ji the government will fall if you wish. I said I do not want to topple the government.” He added, “Scindia ji’s supporters said that they want to bring down the government run by a liar like Kamal Nath. He is a fraudster, they said. We are with you. Then Suresh Pachouri’s people approached me to topple the government…”
Kailash Vijayvargiya slammed the Madhya Pradesh chief minister for supporting corruption and encouraging dynastic politics by promoting his son, Nakul Nath as the next leader. The BJP leader said, “Kamal Nath has caused harm to himself by promoting his son Nakul Nath and ignoring other leaders. All the OSDs of Kamal Nath have note counting machines. One of the police officials narrated his ordeal and said that he has given Rs 25 lakh for his transfer but was denied transfer as the government got another official who was willing to pay Rs 50 lakh.”
This is not for the first time that ominous signs have come for the Congress from the state of Madhya Pradesh in the recent past. A cordial, late night surprise meeting between Shivraj Singh Chouhan, the previous chief minister of Madhya Pradesh and senior Congress leader in Madhya Pradesh, Jyotiraditya Scindia earlier this year had sparked off speculations about discord within the Madhya Pradesh Congress unit which must have left the grand old party in a spot of bother. This situation seems that much more worrisome for the Congress because there have been rumours that Scindia was 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 the CM, the Jyotiraditya Scindia faction got annoyed and had 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.
The discord between the Madhya Pradesh CM and senior party leader Digvijaya Singh also came to light when the latter was nominated to contest Lok Sabha polls from the Bhopal Lok Sabha seat, a BJP bastion where the Congress has been shunned continuously since 1989. Madhya Pradesh CM Kamal Nath had said that there were 3-4 Lok Sabha seats in Madhya Pradesh where the Congress had been shunned for the last 30-35 years. He had then gone on to say, “I have urged Digvijay Singh to choose the toughest seat in MP if he wants to contest the upcoming LS polls. However, the decision to pick the seat rests on him.” It is clear that Digvijaya was fielded from a very tough seat and Kamal Nath played a big role in his contest from a tough seat. Digvijaya Singh suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of BJP candidate Sadhvi Pragya. This could have led to embitterment of relations between the two senior Congress leaders.
It is clear that the national leadership of the Congress seems clueless even as the Madhya Pradesh unit of the grand old party seems to be on the verge of falling apart. There is every possibility of balkanisation of the Congress in the state with three factions fighting out one another. A bitter fallout in the state could actually spell disaster for the grand old party and may very well prove to be the decisive blow for the Congress which is already fighting it hard to survive in the Indian political spectrum.