The much-waited closed-door meeting between Rajya Sabha member and former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Digvijaya Singh and former Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia did not happen on Monday, apparently due to lack of time.
The two stalwart Congress leaders, considered to be political rivals, however, met briefly on road in Guna and exchanged garlands and greetings. Digvijaya Singh’s son and state Urban Administration Minister Jaivardhan Singh was also present during this brief meeting.
Later, Digvijaya Singh left for Aron from where he was scheduled to proceed to Indore. Scindia continued with his pre-scheduled programmes in Guna.
All eyes were on the proposed meeting, mentioned in the schedule of Digvijaya Singh, to be held between 1.15 and 2.00pm at Guna circuit house. The meeting had assumed significance in view of the upcoming elections for three Rajya Sabha seats in the state falling vacant on April 9.
The only reason that was given for the meeting not being held was that the schedule of both the leaders on the day did not allow for enough time, sources said. However, the fact that the two leaders do not see eye to eye again came into discussion despite their public display of warmth on Monday.
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The upcoming Rajya Sabha elections are crucial both for Digvijaya Singh, who is a sitting member, and Scindia, who is being considered one of the front-runners for one of the three seats. Currently, two other seats are with the BJP (Prabhat Jha and Satyanarayan Jatia).
Given the current strength of the Congress (114) and the BJP (107) in the 228-member house (two seats have fallen vacant due to death of members), it is clear that one each seat for both the parties is assured.
For the third seat, though the Congress is the favourite, it will require the support of the SP, BSP and independent members in the house. These members are already supporting the Congress government in the state and normally are expected to vote in favour of the ruling party, but the BJP will try its best to wrest the third seat. The proposed meeting between Singh and Scindia was, therefore, being watched keenly.
‘BJP does not need to fight for me'
Meanwhile, Scindia, who had a brief stopover in Bhopal on the way to Guna, attacked the BJP saying that the party does not need to fight for him as he was capable of fighting for himself.
Scindia’s comments came in the wake of BJP leaders have been issuing statements in support of the young leader after the his reported differences with Chief Minister Kamal Nath and some public statements made by both the leaders. BJP leader Vishwas Sarang even challenged Congress to make Scindia the MP Congress Committee chief.
Speaking to reporters, Scindia said that he was not even fighting for himself, but for the people of the state. “I have chosen the way of service of people and I have been doing this for past 17 years, this is nothing new. We have to raise issues of people in this direction and I do just that,” Scindia said.
He added that promises in the Vachan Patra of the Congress have to be fulfilled and one has to be patient in this regard. But if they remained unfulfilled even after five years, he said he would have to stand with the people of the state.
