Rift in Congress over talks of bypoll ticket to defector?

Bhopal: Former minister for panchayat in the erstwhile Kamal Nath government, Kamleshwar Patel, on Tuesday supported the return of Rakesh Singh Chaturvedi into the Congress fold.

“He was a man who followed Congress ideology though he joined BJP for few years,” Kamleshwar Patel said and added, “Chaturvedi is a good leader but he strayed from our party ideology.

But in matters like this, there is nothing very personal.”

Patel also claimed that even brothers have differences but issues get resolved and Chaturvedi should not be opposed.

Two months after 22 party MLAs including six ministers followed Jyotiraditya Scindia to join BJP, a deep rift has again developed within the state Congress over the man who started the defection from party history in recent years. On July 11, 2013 Congress entered the state assembly to bring a ‘No Confidence’ motion against the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government.

Leader of Opposition Ajay Singh rose to address the House. But before he could utter a word, the Congress’ deputy leader of opposition Chaturvedi defected and said he did not support the motion.

The BJP bodily lifted Chaturvedi and took him straight to the state party headquarters. He was garlanded, honoured and given saffron party membership. Six years later, in April 2019, during the Lok Sabha polls, Chaturvedi returned to Congress.

Now, with 24 assembly seats going for bypolls, one section of the Congress wants to give him the ticket as party candidate from Mehgaon in Bhind district while another section is vehemently opposing it.