Madhya Pradesh Government Crisis: Jyotiraditya Scindia Meets PM Narendra Modi, Congress Gets Into Huddle
Amid a political crisis in Madhya Pradesh, rebel Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia met Prime Minister Narendra Modi at his residence in New Delhi.
New Delhi, March 10: Amid a political crisis in Madhya Pradesh, rebel Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday at his residence in New Delhi. Jyotiraditya Scindia was accompanied by Union Home Minister Amit Shah. According to reports, Scindia is likely to join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) later in the day. The Congress party got into a huddle after Scindia met PM Modi. Madhya Pradesh Government Crisis: 'Jyotiraditya Scindia is Suffering from Swine Flu', Quips Digvijaya Singh.
Congress chief Sonia Gandhi called an emergency meeting of senior leaders to make the first effort to save the Kamal Nath government in Madhya Pradesh. Sources said that the Congress wanted a headcount of Madhya Pradesh MLAs before making any political move. Meanwhile, Chief Minister Kamal Nath is in a huddle with Digvijaya Singh and other senior Congress leaders in Bhopal to ward off the crisis.
In a late-night development, 20 cabinet ministers of the Kamal Nath government handed over their resignations to the Chief Minister, paving way for cabinet rejig. The resignations came hours after over a dozen MLAs close to Scindia flew to BJP-ruled Karnataka. Bankim Silawat, the son of Congress Minister Tulsi Silawat, Scindia's close aide Purushottam Parashar, Rajyawardhan Singh, Pradhuman Singh Tomar, Giriraj, Raksha Sinoriya, Jaswant Jatav, Suresh Dhakad, Jajpal Singh and Brijendra Yadav are among MLAs who landed in Bengaluru.
Subsequently, Scindia went incommunicado. Last week, 10 MLAs had gone "missing" but eight of them have returned to the state, the latest being Congress legislator Bisahu Lal Singh, who met Kamal Nath in Bhopal on Sunday and said he was with the party. Two MLAs, Raghuraj Singh Kansana and Hardeep Singh Dang, have still not been traced. Dang had sent his resignation to the Speaker and Kamal Nath.
Scindia and Nath have been at loggerheads ever since the Congress leadership chose the latter for the chief ministerial post. Besides, Scindia has been trying to become the party's state unit chief, a post which the Chief Minister continues to hold on to, despite this being against the party's one man, one post principle. A tussle is also underway between Nath and Scindia over the filing of 3 nominations to the ensuing Rajya Sabha elections on March 26.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 10, 2020 12:02 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).