Former Madhya Pradesh chief minister and Madhya Pradesh Congress chief Kamal Nath wished Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on friendship day, but the public wishes come with a jibe on the future of Chouhan as CM.
Nath’s jibe comes a day after Chouhan visited Delhi a third time in three weeks and met Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday evening, fuelling speculations over possible change of guard in Madhya Pradesh.
However, the former CM’s personal camaraderie with Chouhan often gets talked about in the power circles of Madhya Pradesh and it is said the two never take actions to hurt each other personally.
On Sunday, however, Nath tweeted to say, "Friend Shivraj Singh ji, best wishes to you on friendship day." The feel of camaraderie lasted only till this first line of the tweet. The former CM further said, "Although the government formed by trading is almost 16 months old, in these 16 months the people did not see your government on the ground even for a single day."
Nath’s direct dig came in the next tweet, "The way some of the dissatisfied are chasing your chair, don’t know till when you will be able to safeguard your chair." He further said, "But I hope that till the time you are the chief minister, you should make some efforts to fulfil the promises to the people of the state and announcements made by you. Make some efforts to provide relief to the people who have faced the consequences of mismanagement of the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic by your government."
Nath further said, "Mafia rule is back in the state, you should implement the big talks by you in this regard. People are troubled by price rise, every section (of society) is troubled, take some concrete steps in this direction."
There was no reaction from Chouhan to Nath’s tweets till the filing of this report.
Chouhan, Sharma meet in private
Meanwhile, on Sunday, Chouhan and state BJP president Vishnu Dutt Sharma had a closed door meeting in Kolar guest house in Bhopal, leading to speculations that names for political appointments to boards and corporations in the state as well as that of spokespersons and panellists of state BJP were being finalised.
As the meeting came right after Chouhan met Amit Shah in Delhi, there are speculations that some agreements have been reached over the appointments that have been hanging fire for a long time. At least four confidantes of Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia are likely to be given appointments, apart from some senior BJP leaders. The Scindia confidantes include the three former ministers who lost in the November 2020 bypolls, including Imarti Devi, Aindal Singh Kansana and Girraj Dandotiya as well as Munnalal Goyal who lost in Scindia stronghold Gwalior.
Before this, both Chouhan and Sharma had separately met BJP national joint secretary (organisation) Shiv Prakash during his visit to Bhopal on July 23. The CM had also met Sharma and state general secretary (organisation) Suhas Bhagat on July 21, apparently to discuss the appointments.
