Within two weeks of forming the government in Madhya Pradesh, two Congress MLAs, Adal Singh Kansana and Dr Hira Alawa, have opened a front against the Congress leadership for not getting ministerial berths. Kansana has attacked the MP Jyotiraditya Scindia and AICC general secretary Deepak Babariya for denial of a ministerial position to him.
On Wednesday, Kansana alleged that Scindia and Babariya did not want him to become a minister. He also registered his protest with the former Chief Minister Digvijay Singh and the former PCC chairman Arun Yadav. The Congress has got six seats from Murraina district, but not a single minister. On the other hand, Dr Hira has claimed that the Congress President Rahul Gandhi has reneged on his promise of offering him a stake in the MP government. He has now sought a meeting with Rahul Gandhi to raise his grievances.
Apart from these two, the only Congress MLA who won from Mandsaur parliamentary constituency, Hardeep Dung is also unhappy on being left-out from the cabinet. While giving an interview to ‘Nai Duniya’ he claimed that according to the parliamentary area and ethnic equation he should have been inducted into the cabinet. The supporters of KP Singh also expressed their resentment on the social media for the injustice meted out on their leader. Supporters targeted Jyotiraditya Scindia and former Chief Minister Digvijay Singh for the ‘flawed’ distribution of ministerial positions.
The supporters of indignant leaders took to the streets to protest against the Congress leadership. On Tuesday, an alert was issued in the Gwalior district, looking at the demonstrations by the protestors on the state highways. Security has been beefed up along the borders of Murraina, Bhind, to prevent the protesters from entering Gwalior from Murraina. More than a hundred soldiers and officers were deployed at the old cantonment border in Gwalior and Banwar in Murraina. Security personnel were stationed at Jyotiraditya Scindia’s palace to stop the protesters from entering his residence.
SP chief Akhilesh Yadav has also expressed his discontent over his sole MLA not being inducted in the cabinet by the Congress. Taking a jibe at Congress, Akhilesh said that such autocratic behaviour from Congress has cleared his way in 2019.
However such resentful statements from SP chief Akhilesh Yadav should be taken with a pinch of salt. Though strategists assume that the Congress will be excluded from the proposed alliance in Uttar Pradesh for Lok Sabha 2019, SP and BSP may well be indulging in shadow-boxing with Congress to consolidate their respective caste-equations.
