Jyotiraditya Scindia
After Jyotiraditya Scindia quit the Congress, around 10,000 of its office-bearers have resigned from the party in Madhya Pradesh and several more are likely to do so, a former leader of the grand old party claimed on Wednesday. The ruling Congress, however, refuted this claim and said the supporters of Scindia were creating pressure on other leaders to leave the party.
Scindia quit the Congress on Tuesday and joined the BJP in the presence of party chief J P Nadda in Delhi on Wednesday.
"About 10,000 office-bearers of the Congress in Madhya Pradesh- from state-level to block-level, including some district presidents, have resigned from the Congress since Tuesday morning owing their allegiance to Scindia ji," former state Congress spokesman Pankaj Chaturvedi, who also quit the party along with Scindia, told PTI on Wednesday.
"More leaders will resign from the party soon," he claimed.
The district presidents of Guna, Sagar, Ashok Nagar, Gwalior, Indore, Shivpuri and some other districts have resigned from the party, Chaturvedi, a staunch Scindia supporter, said.
State Congress spokesman Narendra Saluja told PTI that Scindia supporters are pressurising the leaders to resign from the party.
He also said that the party office-bearers have not resigned in such large numbers.
"Whoever resigned, did so under pressure from Scindia supporters. They are creating pressure on the party leaders. If he was so popular, then why did he lose the Guna Lok Sabha seat last year?" Saluja asked. He said Scindia would soon come to know the reality of his leadership after spending some time in BJP.
On Tuesday, 22 Congress MLAs from Madhya Pradesh resigned soon after Scindia quit the party. The development reduced the Congress government in the state to minority.
The BJP on Tuesday night shifted its MLAs to Manesar at Gurugram in Haryana, while Congress shifted its legislators to Jaipur on Wednesday morning amid ongoing political tug-of- war.
