Congress leader Gaurav Gogoi has targeted the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over the political crisis in Madhya Pradesh triggered by the resignation of Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia on Tuesday. Scindia had announced his resignation from the party minutes after meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi along with Union home minister Amit Shah in Delhi.
Scindia is set to join the BJP at 12:30 this afternoon.
“At a time of economic distress, the BJP’s priority is to topple a stable government, it shows the party is not interested in economic issues. We’ve seen what the BJP has done in Karnataka, if people wanted BJP in MP they would have voted for them. If people leave the Congress for personal reasons, then it is sad,” said Gogoi, one of the seven MPs facing disqualification over ruckus in Parliament last week. He is a Member of Parliament from Kaliabor in Assam.
The Congress legislature party, meanwhile, passed a resolution supporting Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath on Tuesday evening after Scindia’s resignation.
In his resignation letter to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Scindia wrote, “While my aim and purpose remain the same as it has always been from the very beginning, to serve the people of my state and country, I believe I am unable to do this anymore within this party.”
A BJP functionary said, “So far, it seems likely that he [Scindia] will formally join the BJP and his name could be proposed as a [Rajya Sabha] candidate from the BJP’s side in Madhya Pradesh,” said a party functionary.
While Scindia has not made any further announcement, Yashodhara Scindia, BJP leader and Scindia’s aunt, described his decision as “ghar wapsi”.
The Congress and the BJP have moved in to guard their legislators as the tussle for power in Madhya Pradesh is now down to numbers, with 22 Congress MLAs, including six ministers, tendering their resignations.
The BJP legislators were flown from Bhopal to Delhi; they arrived at a luxury hotel in Gurugram in the early hours of Wednesday. The Congress will likely move its MLAs from Bhopal to Jaipur later in the day, the news agency further reported.