By Neeraj Mishra

Former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijaya Singh returns to his old Lok Sabha constituency Rajgarh after 33 years while former union minister Kantilal Bhuria is contesting for the sixth time from Jhabua after having lost it twice earlier. They are part of the Congress push to better its tally from the state from one seat to maybe five. The problem this time is that they are assured of not receiving any central party funding.

PCC president Jitu Patwari has pushed the candidature of Akshay Kanti Jain from Indore in the hope that he will not only finance his own elections but also contribute to depleted party funds. Jain hopes to garner support from the rich Jains in the city as he has become the first candidate from that sect to contest for the Lok Sabha. He faces sitting MP Shankar Lal Lalwani, an unpopular Sindhi candidate of the BJP.

Five sitting MLAs have been nominated by the Congress while the sitting MP from Chhindwara Nakul Nath returns to save his seat. The party has yet to decide on six seats including the crucial ones of Gwalior and Guna. It has offered the Khajuraho seat to the Samajwadi Party. On paper at least, this is the best team the Congress can nominate under the given circumstances. Arun Shrivastav has been nominated from Bhopal as it has the largest number of Kayastha voters in the state. Kayastha and Muslims have lived in harmony for centuries in the city and are expected to vote together. The BJP has denied a ticket to sitting MP Pragya Thakur and shown faith in Bhopal Mayor Alok Sharma.

In the midst of what might turn out to be a compelling election, the IAS community in the state has been split into two over the alleged ill treatment of promoted IAS officers and direct recruits. It started with Lalit Dahima, a secretary-level promoted IAS officer of the state PSC cadre, reaching late for a meeting called by Principal Secretary Manish Rastogi. It appears after some furious exchange of words, Rastogi asked his junior to leave the room in front of other members of the department.

The issue has ballooned into an RR vs PSC officers issue after several junior officers complained of  similar ill treatment. Madhya Pradesh has about 300 IAS officers but the real power is usurped by about a dozen IAS officers close to the chief minister. This has been a tradition since the days of Arjun Singh, which only gained total acceptance under Shivraj Singh Chouhan. How the discontent will affect the working of the Mohan Yadav government remains to be seen but the Congress is not complaining as it plays the field for the Lok Sabha elections.

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Former Minister and senior BJP MP Deepak Joshi on Saturday resigned from the saffron party and joined the rival Congress in Madhya Pradesh ahead of state Assembly elections which are scheduled to be held in November this year.

The Congress announced Joshi’s induction into the party fold on its official Twitter handle as the veteran BJP leader joined hands with the grand old party in presence of former Madhya Pradesh chief minister and state President Kamal Nath and other top leaders of the party.

In a Twitter post, Congress wrote that Deepak Joshi, the son of former MP Chief Minister Kailash Joshi, joined the party ranks in the “fight to save democracy” and end “jungle raj” in the BJP-ruled state.

The Congress tweeted: “Senior BJP leader, former minister and former MLA Deepak Joshi joined the Congress under the leadership of State Congress President Kamal Nath. Deepak Joshi ji is welcome in this fight to save democracy and remove Jungle Raj from Madhya Pradesh.”

Deepak Joshi is a three-time MLA, who was first elected MLA from Bagli in Dewas district in 2003 and later won consecutive Assembly elections in 2008 and 2013 from the Hatpiplya seat in the same district, following which he was inducted as a minister in the Chief Minister Shivraj Chouhan-led Bharatiya Janata Party regime in Madhya Pradesh.

However, Joshi lost to Congress candidate Manoj Chaudhary in the 2018 polls who went on to join the BJP in 2020 after the  Jyotiraditya Scindia-led faction quit the Congress. Chaudhary won again from Hatpiplya in a subsequent bypoll.

In March 2020, then Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia, now union civil aviation minister, left the Congress along with Chaudhary and more than 20 other loyalist MLAs, leading to the fall of the Kamal Nath-led Congress government which paved the way for BJP’s return to power in Madhya Pradesh.

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Two Congress MLAs from Madhya Pradesh have been booked for harassing a woman travelling on a train with her newborn child. The accused MLAs were drunk and used abusive language against the woman

Reports say the incident took place on the Rewa-Habibganj Rewanchal Express and the woman informed her husband about the abuse. Following this, her husband tweeted about the same and urged the railway authorities to look into the matter and help his wife.

The Railway Police at Sagar boarded the train and helped the woman, reports stated.

An FIR was also filed against the accused MLAs Sidharth Kushwaha of Satna and Suneel Saraf of Kotma under the relevant Section 354 of the Indian Penal Code dealing with using force or an assault to violate a woman’s modesty.

In her complaint, the victim said she was travelling from Rewa to Bhopal with her 7-month-old son in the H-1 coach. The accused MLAs had dinner at around 11:50 pm in front of her seat.

She further informed they were using foul language and also touched her shoulder and offered her food. After she chose not to respond to the drunk MLAs, they touched her again. They did not stop even after her protest, the reports said.

Following the FIR, Kushwaha said the allegation was baseless as he was polite and offered his seat to the woman. The woman’s husband thanked the authorities for taking immediate action and helping his wife and newborn baby.

BJP leader Lokendra Parashar has now sought an explanation from Madhya Pradesh Congress MP Kamal Nath on Twitter.

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A Congress councillor in Madhya Pradesh’s Sheopur today staged a unique protest by dumping garbage outside the municipality office. The councillor Lakshmi Shivhare reached the office with her supporters and dumbed the garbage at the door of the Chief Municipality Officer’s (CMO) office.

A video of this incident went viral on social media on Wednesday. The councillor alleged that the CMO has been ignoring her requests of cleaning her ward area for the last three months. Everybody was in trouble because of the unwanted garbage. The garbage could cause many diseases. She said that no one would take responsibility for the diseases.

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On Tuesday, many Congress workers staged protests at Indore Municipality Corporation (IMC) headquarters. The party workers alleged that the municipality officials were doing partiality toward BJP corporators and leaders. They also alleged corruption, poor conditions of roads and waterlogging. Former Congress minister Sajjan Singh Verma and Jittu Patwari were leading the protest.

IMC’s leader of opposition Chintu Choukse said that they have set out spies in every department and they would take action against those found involved in corruption or taking bribes. IMC officials turned blind eye to the illegal construction but serve notice after completion of the building to get the matter settled. They demolished the buildings when the settlement failed.

The Congress workers also raised the issues of corruption in water tanker allotment and partiality in LED light distribution.

Sajjan Singh said that Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan may lose his chair in the next 8-10 years. He further said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has brought eight cheetahs from Africa to counter the self-proclaimed Tiger Shivraj Singh Chouhan and he would lose his chair anytime soon.

Madhya Pradesh BJP lost control of seven corporations in the municipal elections held in July this year.

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Madhya Pradesh Congress on Wednesday drafted Babulal Chaurasia, a former municipal corporator in the party. He is a former municipal corporator and a follower of Nathuram Godse who had pledged to spread Mahatma Gandhi’s killer message to people. The state Congress chief and former Chief Minister welcomed him in the party.

Madhya Pradesh Congress tweeted a picture of Nath giving Chaurasia a grand welcome last evening. Babulal Chaurasia had earlier quit the Congress and won civic polls as a member of the Hindu Mahasabha.

A Congress MLA in Gwalior justified the decision to take him back using the parallel of Rahul Gandhi. He said earlier he was in Congress but he fought the elections and got elected as a corporator from Hindu Mahasabha. Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi has forgiven the killers of his father. They are so large-hearted, it’s because of their values that a person worshipping Godse started worshipping Gandhiji, he added.

Meanwhile, Chaurasia claimed that he had been pushed to attend Godse tributes. He told reporters that he has been been associated with the Congress in the past, so it’s a return to the family.

The Congress is seeking to regain power in the upcoming muncipal polls in the Gwalior-Chambal region where the party performed poorly in the last elections. The region is a stronghold of Jyotiraditya Scindia, the former high profile leader of Congress who drafted to BJP, toppling Kamal Nath government and resulting in the return of BJP’s Shivraj Singh Chouhan to power.

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BJP Spokesperson Rahul Kothari said the new entrant in the party is the result of their loss in the civic polls as they have been wiped out of the Gwalior-Chambal region. A month back, Kamal Nath had asked Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan whether he was with Mahatma Gandhi or with Nathuram Godse. Now he himself needs to answer that question.

Babulal Chaurasia made headlines in 2019 when he declared that he would forward Nathuram Godse’s last court statement to one lakh people.

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The Madhya Pradesh Congress leader and former PWD minister Sajjan Singh Verma sparked a row on Thursday by passing a controversial remark on a woman’s minimum age for marriage. Verma questioned, when girls can reproduce at 15 years, why raise their marriageable age from 18 to 21 years.

The comment did not go down well with the BJP who immediately demanded an apology from the Congress leader. But Congress tried to let the matter go with state Congress spokesman Bhupendra Gupta claiming the BJP wanted to make an issue out of nothing.

Verma’s comment came after Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan, while inaugurating Samman — a fortnight-long public awareness drive about crimes against women, called for raising the minimum age of marriage from 18 to 21. Women are currently allowed to get married at the age of 18, three years earlier than the 21-year minimum age limit for men. The Chief Minister had said that the minimum age for women should also be made 21 years.

Arguing that women are able to reproduce at the age of 15 years, Verma said this is not his finding. As per doctors’ report, girls are suitable for child bearing at 15 years of age. Owing to it only, a girl is considered mature enough for marriage at minimum 18 years of age, he added.

Referring to Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Verma said is he a scientist or a great doctor that he is batting for increasing the minimum marriageable age for girls from 18 years to 21 years?. To which, BJP spokesperson Rahul Kothari said Sajjan Singh Verma has insulted all the daughters not only in Madhya Pradesh, but across the country.

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Meanwhile, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has issued notice to Verma on the matter and asked him to provide an explanation within two days giving reasons and justifying his intention for making such discriminatory statements against minor girls and law.

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