New Delhi, February 20
The Congress may well be in for a rude shock as former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijay Singh’s brother Lakshman Singh, a sitting Lok Sabha MP, is likely to join the BJP in the coming days.
Confirming that he has an offer from the BJP, Mr Lakshman Singh told The Tribune today that he had not taken a final view on the matter.
“There is an offer to me from the BJP but I have not decided on it yet,” he said. He refused to divulge the reason for his proposed switch to the rival camp, stating that he would go public with his decision in the next few days, possibly by Monday.
It is learnt that Mr Lakshman Singh met BJP President M.Venkaiah Naidu today and has also been in touch with party spokesperson Arun Jaitly and Deputy Home Minister L.K. Advani. Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhraraje Scindia, who wields considerable influence in Madhya Pradesh, is also learnt to have played a key role in this operation.
While an elated BJP is keeping its fingers crossed, a jittery Congress has asked Mr. Digvijay Singh to persuade his brother not to leave the party. Although Mr. Lakshman Singh, who represents Rajgarh constituency in Madhya Pradesh, is not as high-profile as the former Chief Minister, it will prove disastrous for the Congress if he was to campaign against his own brother in the coming Lok Sabha elections.
As it is, Congress cadres in the state are yet to recover from its disastrous performance in the Assembly elections while Mr Digvijay Singh’s own popularity has touched rock bottom after these polls.
Mr Lakshman Singh is learnt to have said that he could be persuaded to change his mind on the condition that Congress President Sonia Gandhi publicly declares she is not a Prime Ministerial candidate. The Congress MP has been unhappy for quite some time and recently he has been openly criticising Ms Gandhi’s leadership, stating that there was no inner party democracy in the Congress.
He had apparently been seething because he was not allowed to have his say at the last meeting of the Congress Parliamentary Party. He has also been critical of his brother, saying the Congress lost the elections because of Mr Digvijay Singh’s wrong policies.
In case Mr Lakshman Singh finally does decide to desert the Congress, it would be a major coup for the BJP, which has been on a major recruiting spree ever since the elections were announced. The BJP’s most prized catch so far has been the two estranged members of the Gandhi parivar — Maneka Gandhi and her son Varun Gandhi.
In fact, its decision to zero in on Mr. Lakshman Singh appears to be part of a calculated plan to create divisions in the “Congress political families.” For the present Madhya Pradesh Chief
Minister Uma Bharati, it will be a proverbial case of sweet revenge as Mr Digvijay Singh had tried to persuade her brother Swami
Lodhi, a sitting BJP MLA, to join the Congress before the Assembly elections.
