The Congress lashed out at the state government on a wide range of issues from the farmers’ agitation to malnutrition at a public meeting to mark the culmination of the party’s Kisan Swabhiman Yatra. All state Congress leaders, including Digvijay Singh, Jyotiraditya Scindia and Kamal Nath, were present on the dais to project a united face of the party. Ajay Singh and Arun Yadav also addressed the gathering.

Dr Govind Singh was the chief organiser of the event, which drew a 50,000-strong crowd. Addressing the gathering, Jyotiraditya Scindia accused the state government of doing injustice to farmers. “Now the time has come to uproot the BJP government, because instead of protecting the farmers they have driven them to death. The farmer is a bread giver, but the government has impoverished them”, the MP said.

Former CM Digvijay Singh supported a memorandum drawn up by Govind Singh, which called for a complete waiver of farmers’ loans. He also demanded compensation of Rs 50 lakh and government job for the kin of farmers who had committed suicide. AICC general secretary Mohan Prakash claimed that the UPA government had waived off farmers’ loans worth Rs 72,000 crore in 2008. The government took the decision on its own although no demand was made by any farmer association or the state governments, he added.

Leader of opposition Ajay Singh promised that if Congress forms the government in the 2018 elections, it will give free electricity for 5 horse power pumps and also single connections.

The Congress proposes to hold such meetings in other places also. The first such meeting is scheduled to take place in Sidhi, which is supposed to be Ajay Singh’s stronghold.

Obviously keeping in view the forthcoming assembly elections, a joint BJP-RSS meeting was held in Bhopal, which took stock of the post-farmer agitation situation in Madhya Pradesh. Though party leaders dubbed the meeting as a 'routine discussion', sources said that issues related to farmers' unrest, alleged non-cooperation by bureaucracy, MLAs and party office-bearers were on the agenda. Sources said that the RSS took feedback on the role of administrative machinery in implementing welfare schemes and programmes initiated during 13-year tenure of the BJP government.

"The meeting was aimed at an interaction between BJP and its various organisations. This is a routine affair, which is held every quarter and half yearly", said state party vice-president Ajay Pratap Singh. This is the third such meeting convened by the saffron organisation in the past one month. Earlier, the RSS had organised meetings in the Mahakaushal region in Jabalpur and Indore for Malwa region. The RSS then discussed the issues of Madhya Bharat region with chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, state party chief Nandkumar Singh and cabinet ministers Narottam Mishra, Uma Shankar Gupta and Rustam Singh among others.

The RSS leaders are not happy with the state of affairs. Bhaiyyaji Joshi, Sar Karyawah of the RSS, said that while the government spends crores of rupees on medical research, even routine medicines were not reaching the rural areas. He regretted that while leaders declared from the rooftops that they want to serve the common man, in practice it was not like that. Leaders ignore the basic problems of the people. The RSS leaders advised the BJP workers to connect themselves with the booth-level party men. That alone will help make the party strong.

Meanwhile, the BJP is facing an embarrassing situation over the Election Commission's verdict against Minister Dr. Narottam Mishra, which declared his 2008 election to the state assembly null and void over the issue of "paid news". He has also been debarred from contesting elections for the next three years. However, Mishra is refusing to honour the verdict and insisting that he would vote in the presidential election. He is continuing to be a minister and also member of the Vidhan Sabha. He approached the High Court but so far could not get any relief. On the contrary, he suffered a setback when the court deferred hearing of his prayer till July 25.

The court decision came after former Congress MLA Rajendra Bharati informed the court that he has moved a petition before the Supreme Court challenging the administrative order of the High Court transferring the case from the Gwalior bench to Jabalpur, which is the seat of the High Court. Mishra had challenged the EC's order before the Gwalior bench of high court. On July 5, a public interest litigation was filed before the Jabalpur bench urging that Mishra's election be declared null and void, which the court posted for July 6 for hearing and made Narottam Mishra and complainant Rajendra Bharti respondents. The case was subsequently transferred to Jabalpur. Bharti has challenged the decision and filed a petition in the Supreme Court. (IPA Service)