The Congress government in Madhya Pradesh is staring at a collapse as more than 20 MLAs’ loyal to Jyotiraditya Scindia have quit the Congress, dealing a blow to the wafer-thin majority of the ruling combine in the state. Amidst this political turmoil, Congress has gone ahead to nominate senior leader Digvijaya Singh for the Rajya Sabha (RS) elections.
According to reports, party veteran Digvijaya Singh reached the state Assembly secretariat around 12.30 pm Thursday and submitted his papers to the returning officer and Vidhan Sabha principal secretary A P Singh.
Digvijaya Singh’s nomination to the Rajya Sabha comes on the heels of Congress bigwig from MP, Jyotiraditya Scindia quitting the party and joining the BJP on Wednesday. It is believed that the core reason behind Scindia’s grievance was the reported efforts of the Kamal Nath-Digvijaya Singh duo to deny him a Rajya Sabha seat. BJP has already named Scindia as its candidate for Rajya Sabha from Madhya Pradesh.
It was only after Jyotiraditya Scindia decided to go incommunicado that the Congress woke up to the reality of events in the state. At that point, both Kamal Nath and Digvijaya Singh said that they were willing to sit down and sought out the differences and rethink on Scindia’s candidature for the Rajya Sabha seat, however, by then Jyotiraditya Scindia was too far gone and had decided to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday.
Once seen as one of Rahul Gandhi’s closest aides, Jyotiraditya Scindia ditched the Congress party, leaving its government in Madhya Pradesh in chaos on Tuesday afternoon. His resignation, along with that of 21 MLAs, has left the Kamal Nath government in the state on the brink of collapse. It is currently five MLAs short of the new majority mark of 104. Scindia joined BJP today and he has nominated by BJP for upcoming Rajya Sabha elections.
Congress party oscillating over Scindia’s Rajya Sabha nomination acted as a catalyst in his decision to leave the party.