Published 11:03 IST, August 24th 2020
Scindia takes gloves off; slams Kamal Nath-Digvijaya Singh & reveals Deputy CM offer
Scindia publicly admitted that Congress offered him Deputy Chief Minister's post but he had turned down the offer as he decided to work for the people instead.
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As the game of political mudslinging continues in Madhya Pradesh with senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh and former Congress-turned-BJP MP Jyotiraditya Scindia trading barbs with each other, the latter has responded to Digvijaya's remark on him questioning his credibility in politics as he switched allegiance to BJP in March 2020 despite being close to Congress top leadership including Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi.
While speaking at BJP's three-day-long membership drive, Scindia said he understood in a span of fifteen months that Kamal Nath and Digvijaya Singh will ruin the Congress government. For the first time, he publicly admitted that Congress had offered him the post of Deputy Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh but he had turned down the offer as he decided to work for the people.
"Congress top leadership had offered me the Deputy Chief Minister's post. Instead, I decided to work for the people," he said.
In March this year, Digvijaya Singh had also said that Scindia was offered the post of MP Deputy Chief Minister, but Kamal Nath had refused to accept a "chela".
Scindia alleged that the Congress had betrayed the people of the state with false promises with the purpose of coming to power.
"Former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi had promised that farm loans of up to Rs 2 lakh will be waived within 10 days or else the chief minister will be sent back on the eleventh day," he said.
"Congress betrayed the people with false promises like the waiver of farm loan in 10 days in order to come to power in the state."
Digvijaya's criticism of Scindia
Scindia's stern remarks on Congress comes as Digvijaya Singh on Sunday hit out at Scindia saying that he left the Congress even as the party had given him "so much". Digvijaya added that leaving Congress was not expected from Scindia and his move has dented the credibility in politics.
Digvijaya's criticism of Scindia came on the day the ruling BJP claimed that as many as 35,843 Congress cadres joined the ruling party in the last two days of its three-day membership drive underway in Gwalior. Gwalior-Chambal is a stronghold of Scindia. Digvijaya, however, claimed that Congress has grown even stronger in Gwalior-Chambal region after the exit of Scindia from Congress.
BJP's membership drive is supposed to culminate on Monday. The Congress, which had held a protest against the BJP's membership drive when it was launched on Saturday, organised a 'dharna' at the Rani Lakshmi Bai memorial in Gwalior on Sunday.
After taking part in the protest, Digvijaya Singh said, "The Congress has given so much to Scindia, still he left the party. It was not expected of him. This has dented the credibility in politics."
"The massive protest of thousands of Congress cadres on Saturday against the BJP's big membership drive on its opening day, speaks of the fact that the party has grown stronger after Scindia's exit," he added.
11:03 IST, August 24th 2020