MP CM CHOUHAN

If at all there is a fight, it’s for the second spot. Congress, Mamata Banerjee or someone else can keep fighting for that. We have nothing to do with it,” he said.

The comments by Chouhan, senior BJP leader and one of India’s longest-serving chief ministers, came amid mounting tension between the Congress and its erstwhile ally Trinamool Congress over control of the Opposition space.

The Trinamool Congress has poached a number of high-profile leaders from the Congress in the last three months, including 12 lawmakers in Meghalaya, and leaders from both parties have hurled barbs at each other.

Chouhan referred to the tussle in his interaction while attacking the Congress.

“The condition of the Congress is so bad that even other parties are suspicious of its ability to lead the Opposition. Like, Mamata Banerjee is refusing to accept the Congress and saying she will emerge as an alternative,” he said in a conversation with HT’S national political editor Sunetra Choudhury.

Chouhan, who unseated a Congress-led government in Madhya Pradesh last year for a fourth term as chief minister, criticised Rahul Gandhi, and said the latter was unable to fight on the field and not serious about politics.

“How to disturb and destroy a well-running government is something to learn from Rahul Gandhi. Look at what he did in Madhya Pradesh, we didn’t have to do anything. What was his behaviour towards Scindia ji? The government never even gave appointments to meet his associates,” Chouhan said.

He was referring to the collapse of the Congress-led government in Madhya Pradesh in March 2020 after Union civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia and 22 lawmakers close