‘Tiger tamed in BJP’: Congress’ dig at Jyotiraditya Scindia on Indore visit

BJP leader Jyotiraditya Scindia meets former Lok Sabha speaker Sumitra Mahajan in Indore.

The Congress party on Monday took a dig at BJP leader Jyotiraditya Scindia over his ‘Tiger Zinda Hai’ remark as it questioned his ‘silence’ on issues like non-payment of salaries to contractual teachers, suicide by teachers and farm loan waiver scheme by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.

Congress MLA Jitu Patwari said ‘jungle raj’ is prevailing in Madhya Pradesh. He said while 69,000 contractual teachers have not been paid their salaries since the last three months and 28 such unemployed teachers have committed suicide, Scindia is busy in doing ‘political management’. He also referred to a petition in court challenging the over-sized Madhya Pradesh cabinet and claimed that Scindia is going door-to-door to meet BJP leaders to save his men from getting sacked from the Cabinet.

“He (Scindia) had once said (in July) that ‘tiger abhi zinda hai’ (tiger is still alive). Why did this tiger not venture to serve people in the Gwalior-Chambal region in the last five months? But now in this jungle raj, he is going to meet the saffron party leaders in Indore and Ujjain to retain cabinet berths for his loyalists who toppled the Congress government in March,” Patwari who represents the Rau seat of Indore district in the Legislative Assembly said.

सौम्यता एवं सरलता की प्रतिमूर्ति, पूर्व लोकसभा अध्यक्ष श्रीमती सुमित्रा महाजन जी के इंदौर निवास पर सौजन्य भेंट की। @S_MahajanLS pic.twitter.com/7JhJixHrIp

— Jyotiraditya M. Scindia (@JM_Scindia) August 17, 2020

“….Scindiaji come out to the streets. Why are you hiding in house? Why are you in a cave with tail down?” Patwari, a vocal critic of the BJP, said.

Patwari, also Madhya Pradesh Congress media cell chairman, claimed that Scindia got immense respect in the Congress. Calling Scindia a ‘big leader’, the Congress MLA said that the party leaders used to go to his house and to be around him seeking tickets for elections.

Scindia on Monday met BJP leader and former Lok Sabha speaker Sumitra Mahajan at the latter’s residence in Indore. He also visited BJP general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya’s residence. Since Vijayvargiya is in West Bengal, his son and MLA Aakash Vijayvargiya welcomed the BJP leader. This was Scindia’s first visit to Indore after he joined the BJP in March.

Scindia had quit the Congress along with 22 MLAs after he was denied a Rajya Sabha berth. He then joined the BJP and was elected to the Rajya Sabha from the saffron party. His resignation from the Congress also led to the collapse of the Kamal Nath government in Madhya Pradesh.