Jyotiraditya Scindia unreachable as he is suffering from swine flu, says Digvijay Singh amid political crisis in MP

The Congress party is not able to contact senior leader Jyotiraditya Scindia – at the core of political crisis looming in Madhya Pradesh for the Kamal Nath government – because he has ‘swine flu’, Digvijay Singh told reporters.

"We tried to contact Scindia ji (Jyotiraditya Scindia) but it is being said that he has swine flu, so haven't been able to speak to him," Mr Singh said.

"Whoever will try to disrespect the voters' mandate in Madhya Pradesh, will get a befitting reply from the people in the state... If you ask me, all is well," the 73-year-old added.

"Jo sahi Congressi hai... wo Congress me rahega (Whoever is righteous, will continue to stick around in the party)," he added.

Yesterday, in the midst of high political drama in Madhya Pradesh, a spate of meetings were convened in both theCongress and BJP camp after more than 17 Congress legislators including six ministers – faithful to Scindia flew out to Bengaluru in the BJP ruled state.

Jyotiraditya Scindia, once very close to the Gandhis, is in the national capital, reveal sources.

The Congress party is hopelessly trying to negotiate and a plan will be offered to send the 49-year-old to Rajya Sabha as first preference candidate, sources told.

Twenty ministers in the Madhya Pradesh cabinet resigned last night after CM Kamal Nath tried settling the crisis through cabinet rejig. "I won't let those forces succeed which are creating instability with mafia's help... which are creating instability in government, a government created by people of Madhya Pradesh," he was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.

The BJP has called its MLAs to Bhopal for a show of strength today evening. According to sources, Shivraj Singh Chouhan could be elected the leader of the legislative party in the meeting.

However, Shivraj Singh, last night stated that he is not interested in toppling the state government in Madhya Pradesh. "We have nothing to do with this. This is Congress's internal matter and I would not like to comment on it. We had said on the first day that we are not interested in bringing down the government," he told.

In the 230 member assembly, the Congress has 120 MLAs, just four above the majority mark of 116. 144 are from Congress, two from the BSP, one SP and four are independent. The BJP has 107 MLAs and two seats are currently vacant.

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