Ghost of 2020 Political Crisis Returns To Haunt Madhya Pradesh Congress
Kamal Nath, Digvijay Singh blame each other for Scindia’s exit from grand old party
]Bhopal: The ghost of 2020 political crisis in Madhya Pradesh on Monday returned to haunt Congress, with 2 veteran leaders, Digvijay Singh and Kamal Nath, blaming each other for the exit of Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia from the grand old party then, leading to the collapse of the 15-month-old Nath government.
Mr. Singh triggered the spark for the ongoing debate in the Congress on the half-a-decade-old issue when he held Mr. Nath responsible for Mr. Scindia's resignation from the Congress in March 2020, leading to the fall of the Congress government in Madhya Pradesh then.
“The clash between Mr. Nath and Mr. Scindia was one of personality and not ideology”, Mr. Singh said.
The former chief minister lamented that he was unnecessarily blamed for Mr. Scindia’s resignation from the Congress in 2020.
“It is my misfortune that I am always blamed for the things I have not done”, he said.
The former chief minister recalled that a wish-list of Mr. Scindia detailing development works in Gwalior-Chambal region was submitted to Mr. Nath, who was the chief minister then, for implementation.
Mr. Scindia got upset when his wish-list was overlooked.
Mr. Singh further recounted that Mr. Nath was chosen the chief minister post- 2018 Assembly elections as he had a support of 90 Congress MLAs, as against 24-25 MLAs who had favoured Mr. Scindia for the post.
Mr. Singh said he was taken aback by Mr. Scindia’s decision to quit Congress and crossover to BJP since he had participated in a farmers' event organized by the Kamal Nath government just a week before he resigned from Congress.
Besides, the ministers loyal to Mr. Scindia had also attended cabinet meetings then, he said.
Mr. Scindia had quit Congress and joined BJP prompting 22 Congress MLAs, known to be his loyalists, resigned from the Assembly, pulling down the Kamal Nath government in March 2020.
Mr. Nath on Monday took to the social media platform X to clarify his stand on the issue.
In an indirect dig at Mr. Singh, he said it is true that apart from being ambitious, Mr. Scindia had an impression that Mr. Singh was running ‘my government’ then.
This had made Mr. Scindia upset leading to the split in the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) and subsequently the fall of his government then, Mr. Nath said.
Ruling BJP has taken a swipe at the tussle between the two Congress veterans, saying that this has exposed factionalism in the grand old party.
Madhya Pradesh Congress chief Jitu Patwari however termed it a ‘publicity exercise’ by the two former chief ministers, saying that the two leaders have mastered the art of getting publicity.
