Rift widens, Jyotiraditya Scindia backs Digvijay Singh baiter

Bhopal: The ongoing internecine war in the ruling Congress in Madhya Pradesh on Wednesday reached a flash point with veteran party leader Jyotiraditya Scindia, for the first time, deciding to take the battle to his “rivals”, chief minister Kamal Nath and ex-AICC general secretary Digvijay Singh.

While taking a dig at the chief minister for not being able to curb outside interference in his government, Mr Scindia also threw his weight behind state forest minister Umang Singhar, who had attacked Mr Singh for trying to run the Kamal Nath government by proxy.

“The issues raised by Mr Singhar are needed to be addressed. A government should function independently and not entertain outside interference. The chief minister should stop outside interference in his government”, Mr Scindia told reporters at Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh.

Mr Scindia’s remarks come in the wake of growing resentment among some members in the state government over alleged attempt by an “outside force” to reduce them to lame duck ministers by denying them to function freely.

Letters written by Mr Singh to some state ministers recently, seeking accounts of progress made by them in implementing his recommendations, seemed to have proved the final straw, provoking Mr Singhar to accuse him of blackmailing them.

“The chief minister should sit with both the sides and resolve their differences”, Mr Scindia said.

He said the Congress came to power in MP after a gap of 15 years because of hard work of party leaders and workers.