BHOPAL : Nearly three years after his 15-month-old Congress government in Madhya Pradesh fell
apart following resignations by Jyotiraditya Scindia and 22 loyalist MLAs, state Congress chief Kamal Nath mocked his ex-party colleague and present union civil aviation minister on Friday. “We don’t need any Scindia, if he (Jyotiraditya Scindia) was such a big political cannon then why did BJP lose mayoral polls in Gwalior and Morena last year?” Nath said while talking to journalists in Tikamgarh district on Friday.
Just six months ago, the opposition Congress had stunned the ruling BJP in July 2022, by winning Gwalior and Morena mayoral elections after a decade. Both these defeats happened on Scindia’s home turf, the Gwalior-Chambal region of MP. At least three more senior BJP leaders, including Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, state BJP president VD Sharma and state’s Home Minister Narottam Mishra, too hail from the same Gwalior-Chambal region.
Interestingly, Nath’s remarks about Scindia came in Tikamgarh district – the same Bundelkhand district, where in February 2020, then Congressman Scindia, had for the first time sounded an open rebellion against the Nath-led Congress government, by announcing at a public rally to take to the streets against his own government in support of the ‘atithi shikshaks’.
Nath had mocked Scindia even then, daring him to take the streets over the issue. A month later, the 15-month-old Congress regime was unseated due to Scindia and loyalist MLAs, quitting the Congress and joining the BJP, paving the passage for another BJP government led by Shivraj Singh Chouhan.
Talking to media in Tikamgarh, Nath dared Chouhan to give the account of BJP’s 18 years in power, before he and his party seek account of Nath’s performance of its 15-month-old government in MP. “I’m ready to give the detailed account of my 15 months in power, if he (Shivraj) has the guts, he can give the account of 18 years in power on the same stage,” he said.