Aggrieved at being labelled as anti-dalit by Madhya Pradesh BJP president Nandkumar Singh Chauhan, Congress MP from Guna, Jyotiraditya Scindia today served a legal notice to him.
Scindia, chief whip in the Lok Sabha, has demanded that Chauhan withdraw the statement or face legal action.
The notice demands that Chauhan "immediately withdraw all allegations and aspersions made by him and the state BJP which have thus defamed him (Scindia) on electronic and print media besides social media platforms like WhatsApp and Twitter."
The Congress leader also demanded "unconditional public apology, retracting of the statement to the satisfaction of Scindia through print and electronic media with regard to the said baseless allegations and aspersions harming his (Scindia) reputation."
Scindia warned that if Chauhan and BJP did not comply with the notice, then he will initiate appropriate civil and criminal action against them.
The notice was served through Supreme Court advocate, Varun Chopra.
Controversy erupted when BJP's local Dalit MLA Gopilal Jatav inaugurated a trauma centre at the government hospital in Ashoknagar (under Guna parliamentary constituency) a day ahead of scheduled opening of the same centre by Scindia on June 22.
After this incident, Scindia's local representative Amit Tawre said that the trauma centre would be sanctified by Ganga water.
Ashoknagar's district Congress unit, however, expelled Tawre from the party believing that this statement was not in accordance with the party's line.
On the other hand, the BJP termed this as an insult to a Dalit MLA and burnt Scindia's effigies across the state today.
Congress said that BJP was jealous of Scindia's rising popularity in the state and raking up such baseless issues.
"Scindiaji's popularity is rising in the state and BJP has not been able to contain it. So, BJP is resorting to such tactics," Congress spokesman Pankaj Chaturvedi said.
All attempts to contact Chauhan failed as he was busy in a meeting.
However, state BJP spokesman Rajneesh Agrawal said that after getting legal notice of Scinida, Chauhan will take legal recourse and give a proper reply.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)