Overlooked rebellion in MP Cong which led to govt’s fall, says Nath

Congress veteran and former chief minister Kamal Nath on Sunday admitted that he could not assess the situation in the wake of 22 ex-Congress MLAs raising a banner of revolt against him, leading to the fall of his government.

In a tele-presser here, Nath said he firmly believed that the 22 former MLAs would return to Congress and could not fathom that they would break away from the party. “I did not believe that they would quit the party since I used to be in touch with them frequently. I was meeting them very often and used to talk to them regularly”, he said.

The former CM dismissed talks that senior party leader and former chief minister Digvijay Singh had misled him into believing that the exCongress legislators would return to Congress. “Even Mr Singh could not fathom that the 22 exCongress MLAs would quit party”, Nath remarked, while denying that he had differences with Singh.

A section of media on Saturday reported that the Congress veteran was led into believing by Digvijay Singh that the former Congress legislators would not break away from the party. This triggered a massive row within the Congress. Later, Nath dismissed the report and resorted to dinner diplomacy on Saturday to sort out the matter with Singh.

He invited five senior Congress leaders including Singh for dinner at his house here on Saturday evening, where he ‘removed all misunderstandings’ with Singh, a senior Congress leader, in the know of these developments, told Deccan Chronicle on Sunday, requesting not to be quoted.

Twenty-two Congress MLAs owing allegiance to Jyotiraditya Scindia quietly slipped out of the state to surface at a resort in Bengaluru on March 8, raising a banner of revolt against Nath.

Later, they tendered resignations from assembly, reducing the Kamal Nath government to a minority, leading to the fall of his government.

All the 22 former MLAs subsequently joined BJP, barely a couple of days after their leader Jyotiraditya Scindia embraced the saffron outfit.

The former CM has, however, exuded confidence that Congress would win majority of the 24 assembly seats, which would be going for by-elections very soon, forcing the Shivraj Singh government to bow out.

Twenty two assembly seats in MP have fallen vacant following resignation the sitting MLAs. of