Senior Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia met Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday amid indications that he may join hands with the BJP to topple the Madhya Pradesh government.
Scindia also met Prime Minister Narendra Modi at his residence 7 Lok Kalyan Marg later on Tuesday. Union Home Minister Amit Shah also accompanied Scindia to the Prime Minister's residence.
Sources say Scindia is likely to join the BJP after some of his MLAs flew to BJP-ruled Karnataka triggering a crisis in one-and-a-half-year-old Kamal Nath government in Madhya Pradesh.
Legislators loyal to Scindia, who has been upset with the Congress leadership for sidelining him in the affairs of the Madhya Pradesh Congress, are likely to quit the party to bring down the Kamal Nath-led government.
Scindia has been upset with the Congress party for a while now. Last year, he expressed displeasure with the Congress leadership when the party didn’t find a replacement for Rahul Gandhi for seven weeks after he stepped down as the party president. Scindia had previously stepped down as the General Secretary of Congress as well. He also lost the Guna parliamentary seat – his family bastion – in the Lok Sabha elections of 2019 to BJP’s KP Singh Yadav.
Sources said that resignation letters of about 20 Congress MLAs, who are now in Bengaluru, are ready and will be handed over to the Speaker.
According to sources, Scindia is also likely to attend the BJP Legislature Party meet to be held in Bhopal on Tuesday evening, and could either join BJP or extend support to a BJP-led government in the state. Shivraj Singh Chouhan is likely to be elected as the leader of the BJP Legislature Party in the meeting.
If the Madhya Pradesh government falls, it will be the second after the Congress-JD(S) alliance in Karnataka was brought down by rebel legislators in 2019.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Kamal Nath is in huddle with Digvijaya Singh and other senior Congress leaders in Bhopal to ward off the crisis.
Singh told the media on Monday that they had been trying to reach Scindia. “We tried to contact Scindia ji, but have been told that he is suffering from Swine Flu. So, haven't been able to contact him,” he said.
The Congress Legislature Party will also hold a meeting on Tuesday.
(With PTI and IANS inputs)