Madhya Pradesh polls: Two Congress leaders slug it out

New Delhi: The Central Election Committee (CEC) of the Congress came in for a rude shock on Wednesday evening when two of its senior leaders exchanged heated notes.

Sources say that during the meeting of CEC, former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Digvijaya Singh and Jyotiraditya Scindia entered into a verbal spat on the selection of candidates for the upcoming Assembly elections. Congress president  Rahul Gandhi along with other senior leaders of the party were present in the meeting.

Sources added that during the meeting, the two leaders told each other to “mind their language”. However, Mr Digvijaya Singh on Thursday evening tweeted “it is being wrongly reported in press that I and Scindia ji had any argument and Rahulji had to intervene. All of us in the MP Congress are one and determined to defeat the corrupt BJP government in MP.”

Sensing trouble, the Congress president appointed a three-member committee to iron out the differences between the senior leaders.

The committee members include Ahmed Patel, M Veerappa Moily and Ashok Gehlot. They were also asked to sit with the “warring” leaders and resolve the differences.

Insiders claim that the leadership of the Congress was unhappy with the dissent amongst its leaders coming out in the open.

The CEC meeting for Madhya Pradesh remained inconclusive after it continued beyond midnight.

Insiders say a third meeting of the CEC, the party’s body for selecting candidates, for Madhya Pradesh is likely to be held later. No candidate has been announced for the state.

The process of nominations for Madhya Pradesh starts on Friday with the issue of gazette notification.

After 15 years of remaining in opposition in Madhya Pradesh, the Congress fancies its chances of  snatching power from the BJP. Till now the party was able to keep the differences amongst its leaders under wraps.