Madhya Pradesh Forest Minister
Umang Singhar on Thursday put out a cryptic tweet, seeking to link the poaching row to the March 26 biennial polls for three Rajya Sabha seats in the state but maintained Congress government was completely safe.
The Congress leader, with his statement, appeared to toe the line of the BJP which has been saying it has nothing to do with the ongoing political drama, that according to it, was an outcome of infighting in the ruling party in run-up to the RS polls.
The Congress has accused the BJP of attempting to poach MLAs of the party and its allies in its bid to bring down the Kamal Nath government, a charge strongly denied by the opposition party.
Honourable (Chief Minister) Kamal Nathji government was completely safe. This (poaching row) is all a fight to reach Upper House. Rest you all understand, Singhar tweeted.
Singhar, a tribal leader, is considered a bete-noire of Congress veteran Digvijaya Singh, a sitting Rajya Sabha MP from the state whose term is ending soon.
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Last year, the minister had openly dubbed Singh as a "blackmailer", alleging he was running a proxy government in Madhya Pradesh, a charge rejected by the veteran Congressman's son Jaivardhan then.
The minister's tweet comes at a time when Singh is being seen as a "saviour" of the Kamal Nath government.
He was the first one to raise the red flag in the party, alleging the BJP was trying to "poach" MLAs of the Congress and its allies with allurements to destabilise the 14-month-old Nath government.
The former chief minister made the allegation while talking to reporters on Monday in New Delhi.
Singh, according to people close to him, arrived early Wednesday at the hotel in Haryana where a group of MLAs, said to be target of poaching bid, was cooped up and brought them back to Bhopal.
Thus, he thwarted a BJP bid to topple the Congress government, one of his loyalists said.
However, the BJP has sought to link the political drama to internal fight in the faction-ridden Congress ahead of the Rajya Sabha elections.
Without naming Singh, BJP vice-president and former chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan told reporters in Indore on Wednesday night, A (senior Congress) leader in order to strengthen his claim for RS berth, played a trick to mount pressure on high command by putting the blame on the BJP.
After losing the Lok Sabha polls to BJP MP Pragya Thakur from Bhopal last year, Singh, in all likelihood, would seek re-election to the Upper House, Congress sources said.
The ruling party may field former Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia in the RS elections, they said.
Scindia, like Singh, had lost general elections from Guna.
The BJP may renominate former Union minister and Dalit leader Satyanarayan Jatiya in the RS polls, party sources said.
The three RS seat falling vacant are currently held by Singh (Congress), Jatiya and Prabhat Jha (both from BJP).
Despite depleted numbers after the 2018 assembly polls, the BJP will make all out effort to retain the two seats, where the Congress wants to take it tally to two from one as it has more legislators this time around.
The 230-member Assembly has 114 Congress MLAs followed by the BJP (107). The simple majority mark is 116.
Four Independent MLAs, two lawmakers of the BSP and one of the Samajwadi Party (SP) are providing crucial support to the Congress government. Two seats are vacant following the demise of a Congress and a BJP legislator.
Members of a state's Legislative Assembly vote in the Rajya Sabha elections.
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