A day after the fissures in the Congress in Madhya Pradesh came to the fore again, former Chief Minister Digvijaya Singh said all leaders stood together to serve the people who had given the party the mandate to rule.
“[Chief Minister] Kamal Nathji is doing his best and quite successfully to fulfil all promises made in our manifesto,” Mr. Singh wrote on Twitter on Saturday. He said that the BJP was conjuring up the spectre of infighting in the Congress because of its corruption and involvement in the honey trap scandal.
A day ago, senior leader Jyotiraditya Scindia told Congress workers in Bhind that farm loans were not written off in full. “Although we had promised farmers waiver of loans up to ₹2 lakh, only loans up to ₹50,000 had been waived.”
The same day in Bhind, a poster sprung up, showing Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Mr. Scindia together. Put up by a BJP worker, the poster hailed Mr. Scindia as ‘Bharat mata ka laal’ (beloved son of India), who supported the Centre’s decision to dilute Article 370 so as to divest Jammu and Kashmir of its special status.
Responding to Mr. Scindia’s claim, Chief Minister Kamal Nath said on Saturday: “We had said we would waive loans of up to ₹50,000 in the first instalment and then those of up to ₹2 lakh. I have faith in the public which trusts its leader.”
Taking a jibe at the Congress government, BJP leader and former Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan wrote on Twitter: “Not Shivraj and not people, now it’s your own people who’re showing you the mirror to tell you the loan waiver didn’t happen Kamal Nath ji!... Will your government not wake up even now? Tears in the eyes of farmers have dried, but still they haven’t received anything in their bank accounts.”
On Friday, Mr. Digvijaya Singh shared a photograph, thought to be of the Bhopal-Indore Highway, with several cows blocking it, and said: “Almost every day, gau matas [cows] are killed in road accidents. Where are our cow-loving gau rakshaks ? The Madhya Pradesh government should immediately shift these stray cattle from the road to cow shelters.”
Mr. Nath wrote in response on Twitter: “Dear Digvijaya, let me tell you that a few days ago, I instructed officials to prepare a work plan for the safety of cows that came onto roads due to wet soil in fields during the monsoon. The construction of 1,000 cow shelters is also under progress. By next year, we have a target of setting up 3,000 cow shelters... It is also true that for us, gau mata is not a matter of politics but a symbol of faith and pride.”
“No one knows how many Chief Ministers does Madhya Pradesh have,” Gopal Bhargava, Leader of the Opposition in the Vidhan Sabha, told The Hindu . “Both Mr. Scindia and Mr. Singh are senior leaders and they are making such statements publicly. No one knows what is happening within the Congress.”
