Scindia scoffs at rumours about quitting party  

After enjoying all the attention he got during the past week for his "unhappiness" with his party, former MP Jyotiraditya Scindia made a public appearance on Saturday to announce that he has no plans to leave the Congress.

Scindia has been critical of his own party and the state government on several occasions in recent times.

Suresh Rathkheda, MLA from Pohri Assembly constituency near Shivpur, went as far as suggesting that if Scindia forms a new party, he would be among the first ones to join him.

However, Scindia dismissed rumours about quitting the party.

"I am not going anywhere except the Congress. I am a party soldier, activist and I work at the ground level. I will remain in Congress only," Scindia said while joining a party agitation "to awaken the 28 BJP members of Lok Sabha who have kept quite over the Centre's refusal to release funds to mitigate losses of the farmers and others due to excess rainfall in Madhya Pradesh."

The Congress has accused the Centre of discriminating against the state. Of the 29 members of the Lok Sabha from the state, 28 belong to the BJP. The Congress has accused the BJP MPs of 'silently supporting' the Centre's discriminatory policy.

The Congress has perennially suffered from factional fights in Madhya Pradesh. It hasn't suffered as much at the hands of the BJP while being in the opposition for 15 years as it has from the bickering within the party through the nearly one year of being in power.

The Kamal Nath government is still short of absolute majority and its MLAs keep embarrassing the party by going public with critical statements.

On Friday, senior Congress leader Laxman Singh, brother of former Chief Minister Digvijay Singh, raised the issue of not waiving the loans of up to Rs 2 lakh for the farmers before staging a sit-in at the residence of Digvijay Singh to demand elevation of his constituency Chachauda as a district.

Laxman Singh questioned the Congress' decision to join hands with the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra. He was also critical of the government for its changing policies on sand mining on river beds.

The Congress leaders in Datia opened a front against state minister Govind Singh and made some serious allegations against him. Legislator O.S. Bhadoria and Ranveer Jatav have also been crticising the minister. As as a result, Govind Singh announced that he would not like to contest Assembly elections anymore. He has been in public life for over 35 years.

Earlier, Forest Minister Umang Singhar, a supporter of Scindia, had criticised Digvijay Singh and even accused him of sheltering the liquor mafia. While the issue remains unresolved, Digvijaya Singh has been hogging media attention through his statements advising the government or criticising it.-IANS