BHOPAL: Regularly embarrassing the grand old party with his public utterances over the last few years, former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Digvijaya Singh’s ex-MP and former MLA brother Laxman Singh finally got the axe from the Congress on Wednesday.
“He (Laxman Singh) has been expelled from the party’s primary membership for six years with immediate effect by the party’s national president, due to his anti-party activities,” said an AICC official statement signed by member secretary of the party’s disciplinary committee Tariq Anwar on Wednesday.
While Singh (the five-times former MP from Rajgarh seat of central MP and one-time Congress MLA from Chachauda seat of Guna district) has repeatedly been embarrassing the party with his controversial public utterances, what has prompted the party to act against him, is his April 25 statement.
On April 25, Singh had made controversial statements about the party's former president and current leader of the opposition Rahul Gandhi, Gandhi’s brother-in-law, Robert Vadra and the Jammu and Kashmir CM Omar Abdullah.
The ex-MP had said in his hometown Raghogarh (Guna), “Rahul Gandhi’s brother-in-law's childish statement, how long will we tolerate it. Even Rahul Ji (Rahul Gandhi) needs to speak thoughtfully now, as he is the leader of opposition. Their nadaniyaan (foolishness) too are responsible for such statements.”
Attacking the Jammu and Kashmir CM Omar Abdullah over the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack, Singh had said, “Those in power in J&K right now and have also run the government in the past are to be squarely blamed. Whoever has been in power there (J&K) has taken the support of elements who carried out the recent attack just to run the government. While Omar Abdullah is the current CM, his father too has been the J&K CM multiple times in the past. The J&K CM Omar Abdullah is hand in gloves with the terrorists. I’ve already written to the Congress national president Mallikarjun Kharge and also appealed to the LoP in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi to withdraw support from the National Conference government. Let the J&K government fall, it should be dismissed,” Singh had added.
Singh had further said, “I’m not afraid of making the candid statements, if the party (Congress) wants, it can oust me, but I’ll continue to speak candidly.”
But the April 25 utterances weren’t the first time that Singh caused embarrassment to the Congress with his public statements. He has debunked his own brother Digvijaya Singh’s continued opposition to EVMs in elections. In December 2023, he had questioned Rahul Gandhi’s leadership, saying that he wasn’t a big leader as is portrayed by the media, but was merely an MP like any other MP.
In September 2019, while a Congress government was in power in MP, Singh who was then a first-time Congress MLA from Chachoura (Guna) had gone against the party's official line, by supporting the abrogation of Article 370 by the Narendra Modi government.
Just a month later, he had again caused embarrassment to the party by saying that Rahul Gandhi should apologize to the people of MP, for failing to fulfil the promise of waiving off outstanding loans of farmers within ten days of coming to power in the state.
The same month in 2019, he had led a protest outside his MP brother Digvijaya Singh’s house in Bhopal, in support of his demand to elevate his constituency Chachauda into a full-fledged district.
Singh is five times former MP from Rajgarh seat of MP. While he won the seat four times (1994 to 1999) as Congress candidate, in 2004 elections he retained it as BJP nominee. In 2018, he won the Chachauda assembly seat of his home district Guna as Congress candidate by defeating sitting BJP MLA Mamta Meena, but lost to first time BJP nominee Priyanka Penchi in 2023.
Importantly, during his day-long visit to Bhopal on June 3, the leader of opposition Rahul Gandhi had stated that some leaders in the party were working for the BJP.
“Congress has no dearth of talent who can defeat the BJP, but their hands are tied, particularly as their voices aren’t heard properly in the party organization. We’ve the army to fight and die for the Congress’s cause. But some leaders keep on making irresponsible utterances. Some speak out of frustration, while some other elements do it as they are also working for the BJP,” Gandhi had said while launching the Sangathan Srijan Abhiyan for rebuilding the party’s organization in the BJP-ruled state on June 3.