BHOPAL: Yet another controversy has hit the opposition Congress in the assembly poll bound Madhya Pradesh.
The latest controversy pertains to a press conference addressed by state party election management committee's chief Jyotiraditya Scindia at Ujjain on July 28, where Scindia had allegedly asked state party spokesperson Noori Khan to get down from the stage and instead take a seat with other party leaders on chairs down the stage.
Three days after the episode happened in Ujjain, the state Congress spokesperson Noori Khan has told the media that not only she, but her supporters and the community to which she belongs have felt insulted by the manner in which she was asked to leave the stage of the press conference. She also claims to have written a letter Congress national president Rahul Gandhi about the entire July 28 episode.
The matter has hit the social media platforms also, with politicians like ex-Congress leader and presently an AAP leader Alka Lamba taking potshots at Scindia over the issue."I'm a committed Congress worker, who has no lure for any seat, but went to the stage of the press conference on July 28, in the capacity of state Congress spokesperson, particularly as other local party leaders were seated on the same stage with Scindiaji. I didn't go and take the seat on the stage on my own, but went there only after being asked by another senior leader Rajyavardhan Singh Dattigaon, who is the in-charge of party affairs for Ujjain," Khan told journalists on Thursday.
"I've no qualms on being asked to leave the stage and seated with other party leaders and workers in the front row of the seats down the stage. But the manner in which I was asked to leave the stage publicly has hurt me, my supporters and the community to which I belong. I've written letters to party national president Rahul Gandhi, state party chief Kamal Nath and national general secretary in-charge for MP Deepak Babaria," added Khan.
She, however, had a word of caution for the ruling BJP. "It's our internal party matter and BJP leaders should stop trying to take advantage of it by posing as my sympathizers. The BJP and its state government should instead be worried about tackling rising crimes against women in MP," added Khan.
On Thursday, when queried by journalists about Khan having written letter to senior party leaders, including him, MP Congress Committee (MPCC) chief Kamal Nath said "I haven't received any letter as yet. Once I receive the letter, I'll go through its contents and then enquire about the alleged incident from all party leaders present at the concerned event." State Congress media in-charge Shobha Oza offered a guarded response in the matter, saying "It's unfortunate that Khan has unnecessarily gone public over the issue and that too after submitting in writing before me on July 31 that the entire issue had died down."
Another state Congress spokesperson Pankaj Chaturvedi, who too was present at the July 28 press conference in Ujjain, said "despite being much senior to Khan, I didn't take to the conference's stage and instead sat in back rows of seats down the stage for following set protocol of such occasions. It seems some misunderstanding has taken place with our sister Noori Khan, but we'll resolve the issue in our family itself."
Meanwhile, MP BJP spokesperson Rajnish Agrawal mocked at the Congress, particularly Jyotiraditya Scindia, saying the incident has proved that some senior leaders in Congress, who often champion the cause of women safety, themselves have feudalist mindset towards women when it comes to their own party workers.
This is the second controversy to have hit the Congress in last few days in the poll bound central Indian state. On Sunday evening a group of party workers had manhandled party's national general secretary in-charge Deepak Babaria in Rewa district. Six party workers were expelled from the party over the episode on Wednesday.