BHOPAL/INDORE: Emotions ran high in Madhya Pradesh where the Congress targeted former Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, who joined the BJP on Wednesday, while his supporters hit out the beleaguered ruling party.
Placards with 'Sharam Karo Maharaj' (have shame Maharaj) message and "traitor" written on them formed part of the Congress protest against Scindia in front of Gandhi Bhawan the party office in Indore.
Scindia (49), a member of the erstwhile Gwalior royal family, is addressed as Maharaj by his supporters.
Congress workers shouted slogans against Scindia, who quit the party on Tuesday after 18 years of association and also burned his posters in Indore.
Hours after the former Lok Sabha member from Guna, in Delhi, talked about a transfer industry flourishing in Madhya Pradesh, the Kamal Nath-led Congress government on Wednesday transferred collectors of five districts, including Gwalior and Guna, once part of the Gwalior princely state.
The BJP, under the then Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, had coined a slogan,'Maaf karo Maharaj hamara neta toh Shivraj (Sorry Maharaj, our leader is Shivraj)" to target Scindia during the November 2018 assembly polls.
In a video clip that has gone viral, Labour Minister Mahendra Singh Sisodia, a loyalist of Scindia, is heard saying Chief Minister Kamal Nath and the Congress were "betrayers".
Jyotiraditya Scindia has not indulged in betrayal.
Rather the Congress and Kamal Nathji have betrayed him.
With hard labour put in by Scindiaji, the Congress came to power in MP after 15 years, Sisodia said in the video clip.
He (Scindia) and his people were neglected on the pretext that the (state's) coffers were empty.
In contrast, Rs 12,000 crore was put in the Chhindwara constituency (Kamal Nath).
Are other (Congress) MLAs and ministers worthless?" he asked.
"Is this not our neglect? Is this not the betrayal of the people of MP? In the run-up to the assembly polls in November 2018, the Congress has said that once in power, it will announce a farm loan waiver in 10 days, which has not happened yet," Sisodia said.
In Bhopal, BJP vice-president Shivraj Singh Chouhan welcomed Scindia into his party and said the former Guna lawmaker was the most popular Congress leader in the state.
Talking to reporters, Chouhan said, "If anyone was popular among Congress leaders, it was Maharaj, so we used 'Maaf karo Maharaj' slogan. Now Shivraj and Maharaj are together in the BJP."