Amid speculations over Madhya Pradesh Congress chief post, Jyotiraditya Scindia to meet Sonia Gandhi today

New Delhi: At a time when speculations are rife over a change of leadership in Madhya Pradesh Congress, former union minister and one of the contenders for the post Jyotiraditya Scindia is slated to meet interim party president Sonia Gandhi. While Gandhi has already held consultations with chief minister Kamal Nath, some of the functionaries of the party have threatened to quit if Scindia is not handed the reins in the state.

“Meeting between Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi and Jyotiraditya Scindia has been postponed. Jyotiraditya Scindia is the chairman of the screening committee for upcoming Maharashtra assembly elections and a meeting of Maharashtra Congress is scheduled to take place today — news agency ANI reported earlier today.

Meanwhile, the party is facing embarrassment after state forest minister Umang Singhar called former CM Digvijaya Singh a ‘blackmailer’ who was trying to run the Madhya Pradesh government as a proxy. Singhar, a Scindia camp follower and a prominent tribal leader from the state had also accused Singh of meddling in government affairs following which Scindia’s supporters began demanding that Scindia should be made state Congress chief.

According to reports, CM Kamal Nath has been backing loyalist Bala Bachchan as state Congress chief, while Scindia, at one point was backing Singhar.

The post fell vacant after Kamal Nath resigned after the party’s loss in the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls. He was, however, asked to continue as caretaker chief till the replacement was finalised. Meanwhile, the state leadership has sent a list of probable candidates to the Congress high command. Sonia Gandhi is yet to take a call on the same, agencies reported.