“Poor Uddhav too…”: Shivraj Chouhan’s dig at Kamal Nath after MVA collapse

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Thursday lashed out at Congress leader Kamal Nath, who was sent to Maharashtra as a party observer after political upheavals that saw the collapse of Maha Vikas Aghadi’s government. Chouhan said it was strange for Congress to send a person to bail out the MVA government that his government in Madhya Pradesh couldn’t bail out.

“It is strange of Congress to send one person (Kamal Nath) to rescue the government of Maharashtra who could not save his government… Poor Uddhav had to go too… Congress only has one ‘Nath’, the rest of the Congress is ‘anath’ ‘ (orphan),” Chouhan told reporters in Jabalpur, where he was campaigning for municipal body elections.

Kamal Nath was forced to resign as Madhya Pradesh CM in 2020 after 22 MLAs of Congress, most loyal to Jyotiraditya Scindia, resigned from the assembly. Congress was reduced to a minority, paving the way for Chouhan to return after 15 months as prime minister. Congressional defectors were later absorbed into the BJP and most of them won the general election.

Eknath Shinde and Devendra Fadnavis face a difficult balancing act when swapping roles

Chouhan’s remark came on the night rebel Shiv Sena MLA Eknath Shinde was sworn in as Maharashtra’s chief minister, while BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis swore in as his deputy. With that, Congress has now been ousted from power in yet another state, ruling only Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh alone and Jharkhand in alliance with the JMM and the RJD.

It comes as a shock to the grand ole party, which suffered a series of setbacks in the general election earlier this year. While the party lost its government in Punjab, in Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur it failed to capitalize on the perceived anti-status factor against the BJP.

Several prominent leaders including former Union ministers Ashwani Kumar and RPN Singh, former Goan Prime Minister Luizinho Faleiro, former Punjab Congress chief Sunil Jakhar and Gujarat Labor President Hardik Patel have sided with the party in recent months leaving.