Another turncoat Congress MLA gets key post in Madhya Pradesh

BHOPAL:  Another former Congress legislator who switched over to the BJP has been rewarded by the ruling party with a key post in the Madhya Pradesh government.

Rahul Singh, a first-time Congress MLA from Damoh of Bundelkhand region, who quit the Vidhan Sabha and the Congress party and joined the ruling BJP, just a few days before the crucial November 3, 2020 Assembly bypolls, has been appointed the chairman of MP Warehousing and Logistics Corporation.

In the 2018 Assembly polls, Rahul had done the giant killing by defeating BJP veteran and state’s incumbent finance minister Jayant Malaiya by a wafer-thin margin from Damoh seat of Damoh district.

Bypolls are yet to be held for the Damoh which fell vacant due to Singh’s resignation.

A few months ago, Rahul’s uncle and another first-time Congress MLA, Pradyuman Singh Lodhi, too, was made the chairman of MP Civil Supplies Corporation, just a few hours after he quit the Congress to join the BJP.

Pradyuman was among the 18 former Congress MLAs, who later won the bypolls, which gave the BJP comfortable majority on its own.

At present, 11 ministers in the 30-strong Shivraj Singh Chouhan Cabinet are former Congress MLAs.

Meanwhile, sources within the ruling BJP confided to TNIE that 4-5 Congress MLAs are in touch with the BJP and eager to join the saffron camp.

However, now enjoying a comfortable majority with 126 MLAs in the 230 member House, the BJP isn’t too keen to invite them.