Hindustan Times (Delhi)

Kamal Nath meets Cong MPS to end rumours

- Ranjan letters@hindustant­imes.com

nBHOPAL: Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath on Friday started meeting Congress party legislator­s in a bid of show that there was no danger to his government and he said his legislator­s were not “up for sale.”

“My MLAS are not for sale. They believe in the politics of principles and service. We (Congress) create our identity on politics we can be proud of and firmly say that we are from the state of Madhya Pradesh,” Nath said in a community programme.

The comments came days after the Congress alleged that the opposition BJP was trying to poach legislator­s even as the Congress was not able to track its three legislator­s, who were said to be in Bengaluru.

As the three Congress legislator­s remained incommunic­ado, Nath and senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh cancelled all their programmes outside Bhopal and were said to be speaking to individual party legislator­s to gauge their mood.

Nath and Singh held a meeting at the chief minister’s residence on Friday. After the meeting, Singh said, “I came on being called by chief minister Kamal

Nath. What we are seeing is not an operation lotus but operation moneybag of the BJP. The reason behind what they are doing is the ongoing investigat­ion in e-tendering and other scams and the investigat­ing agencies tightening their grip on them.”

On asked whether the three Congress MLAS would return to the party, he asked, “Where else they will go? They have their own discretion and wisdom and they will take their own decisions.”

Senior BJP leaders including former chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Union rural developmen­t minister, Narendra Singh Tomar, met at the latter’s residence in Delhi to discuss latest developmen­ts in Madhya Pradesh. Chouhan and Tomar, however, did not comment on the discussion­s.

State BJP vice-president Vijesh Lunawat said, “Kamal Nath must resign given the chaotic situation in the state his government has created.”

Surendra Singh Shera who is said to be in Bengaluru for medical treatment of his daughter said on Friday that he was harassed a lot. “I stand by the CM and would meet him to share my ordeal,” he said, in a video released on social media sites. Despite efforts he couldn’t be contacted.

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