Congress crisis “blows over” in MP

Bhopal, March 4 (SocialNews.XYZ) The crisis over "poaching" of Congress MLAs that began with the overnight detention in a hotel in Gurugram in Haryana on Tuesday ended with their "release" on Wednesday.

They were being brought back to Bhopal. Former chief minister Digvijaya Singh announced on Wednesday that the crisis had blown over.

Political observers, however, see the crisis being manufactured for political mileage.

Some others including the Chief Minister Kamal Nath, are dismissing the whole drama as a non-event.

Another senior Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia said he didn't know about the whole episode that unfolded over the past two days. Kamal Nath, who as the head of the state government and Pradesh Congress Committee should have been hassled the most, was cool and composed over the incident.

His junior ministers Jaivardhan Singh and Jitu Patwari were asked to go to Delhi and defuse the crisis. Kamal Nath said: "Things are under control. The MLAs will come back".

Terming the charge as "unfortunate", Madhya Pradesh BJP chief V.D. Sharma alleged that the Congress-led dispensation in the state was a "blackmail" government.

Sharma said this is the Congress' "internal tussle" and the answer should come from Chief Minister Kamal Nath and senior party leaders Jyotiraditya Scindia and Digvijaya Singh.

Singh had on Monday said former chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and his senior colleague Narottam Mishra had offered to pay Rs 25 crore to each of the eight MLAs to help BJP bring down the Kamal Nath government.

For the seriousness of the charges the BJP leaders' response was curiously casual.

Narottam Mishra said, "I would not like to take Digvijaya's charges seriously. He is known to be in the news through such tactics."

Chouhan's tweet said, "Telling lies to cause sensation is an old habit of Digvijaya Singh. He must have done it this time to pressure the government for some unfulfilled wish."

The new state president of the BJP, V.D. Sharma, who is camping in Bhopal since Monday is contacting each party MLA.

The war of words intensified after BJP MLAs Sharad Kol and Narayan Tripathi skipped a party meeting organised in Bhopal during the day.

The two legislators had earlier voted in favour of Nath's government, though the BJP did not take any action against them at the time. Both are former Congressmen who had switched to the BJP.

Resentment was indeed brewing in Congress with senior party MLAs openly demanding ministerial berths. Scindia faction, which has at least nine MLAs, has been complaining about the overbearing attitude of the bureaucracy.

In an embarrassing situation during the previous cabinet meeting the Government had to back out on expanding the liquor vend network in the city after several ministers' shot it down.

Digvijaya Singh and Vivek Tankha, both Rajya Sabha members, have a grouse against Kamal Nath who is holding on to the PCC chief's post.

They were both asked to contest the Lok Sabha elections against their wishes and lost heavily. Tankha on Wednesday said Kamal Nath must address the basic issue of resentment in the party by letting someone else take charge as PCC chief.

Kamal Nath has been postponing the expansion of his ministry and appointment of various corporations which would placate the dissidents.

Digvijaya Singh is seeking another term for the Rajya Sabha and wants to be seen as the party's saviour, an MLA belonging to the Scindia camp said.

On Wednesday, as horse-trading charges intensified, Nath had said he has asked legislators of the ruling camp to take the money being offered by the BJP leadership in the state if given for free.

The Congress alleged on Tuesday that eight of its MLAs have been forcefully kept at a hotel in Gurugram, Haryana. State Finance Minister Tarun Bhanot said that two ministers who went to meet the MLAs holed up at the ITC Maratha Hotel were not allowed entry.

"One of our MLAs and former minister Bisahulal Singh rang us and informed us that they have been forcefully kept at an ITC Hotel in Gurugram and not being allowed to go out," Bhanot said.

Our two ministers, Jaivardhan Singh and Jitu Patwari, who went to the concerned hotel in Gurugram to meet the eight MLAs after getting the phone call from one of the legislators, are not being allowed entry in the hotel," said Bhanot.

Congress MLA Baijnath Kushwah has alleged that he was offered Rs 25 crore a month ago by a BJP leader in Bhind, as well as the position of a Cabinet minister in the Madhya Pradesh government. He said the leader had told him that he was delivering a "message" from Chouhan.

The state Assembly, which presently has a strength of 228, has 114 Congress MLAs, 107 BJP legislators, four independents, two BSP MLAs and one Samajwadi Party legislator. The BSP and Samajwadi Party have backed the Congress-led government.

By elections for the assembly seats of Agar-Malwa and Joura are likely in May. These seats fell vacant following the death of BJP and Congress MLAs and the Congress hopes to win the two seats to win a clear majority in the House.

Nath alleged that the BJP was trying to poach its legislators because it is afraid that the 'scams' perpetrated during Chouhan's rule would be exposed if the Congress continued in power.

Source: IANS