Digvijaya Singh links Cong govt's collapse to initiation of probe into Shivraj-era 'scams'

Senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh on Saturday attributed the collapse of the Kamal Nath government to the commencement of the probe into scams that took place during CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan's regime. He mentioned that during the Congress rule, the Economic Offences Wing and a Special Investigation Team had initiated an investigation to probe the E-tendering scam, Vyapam scam and pension scam. According to Singh, Chouhan had accepted that his career would have been ruined had BJP not engineered the collapse of the Congress government in Madhya Pradesh. Earlier in the day, Congress leaders including Digvijaya Singh staged demonstrations across MP in protest against the three farm laws and rise in the price of petrol, diesel and gas cylinders. 

Read: 'Did Voice Come From His Heart Or Delhi?': MP Minister On Kamal Nath Mulling retirement 

Read: Centre Trying To Ruin Country: Kamal Nath On New Farm Laws

Fall of Congress government

A 9-term Lok Sabha MP from Chhindwara, Kamal Nath made a foray into state politics after taking oath as the Chief Minister of MP on December 17, 2018. However, his government plunged into crisis in 2020 after Jyotiraditya Scindia’s sudden resignation from the Congress party on March 10 followed by 22 MP Congress MLAs putting in their papers. Ruling on a plea of BJP leaders seeking an immediate floor test, a two-judge SC bench comprising Justices DY Chandrachud and Hemant Gupta observed that the MP Assembly session should be reconvened for the sole purpose of holding a floor test by show of hands. Most importantly, the rebel MLAs were not compelled to attend the session.

As the Congress party was short of a majority, Kamal Nath announced his resignation on March 20. Subsequently, Chouhan took oath as the MP CM for the fourth time. Thereafter, three more Congress leaders resigned as legislators and joined BJP. After July's Cabinet expansion, 14 of the 22 MLAs who had resigned from Congress became a part of Shivraj Singh Chouhan's Cabinet. 

In November, Nath's bid to return as the CM suffered a setback after Congress could win only 9 out of the 28 seats which went to the bypolls. While the bypolls were necessitated in 25 seats due to the resignation of Congress MLAs, three other constituencies went to the polls as the respective sitting legislators passed away. As BJP now has a simple majority of its own after winning 19 seats, the MP government is likely to last for its remaining tenure. 

Read: MP CM Hits Out At Kamal Nath; Blames Him For Failing To Fulfill Promise Of Loan Waivers