By Express News Service

BHOPAL: Two days after change of twitter profile by former union minister and senior Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia sparked a political controversy in Madhya Pradesh, a Scindia loyalist legislator created a flutter on Wednesday claiming that his leader will not leave Congress to join another party, but might form a new party.

Suresh Rathkheda, the first-time Congress MLA from Pohri seat of Shivpuri district in state’s Gwalior-Chambal region, when asked by journalists about speculations about Scindia’s political future, said “first let me make it crystal clear that Maharaj (Scindia) is not leaving the Congress. Stop dreaming about him joining any other party. But the day Maharaj wants, he can form a new party and tell how powerful he’s in the entire state,” said Rathkheda.

He added, “The day Shrimant (Scindia) forms a new party, I’ll be the first person to follow him. For me party is important, but Maharaj Sahab (Scindia) is supreme,” maintained Rathkheda.

Trying to play down the first-time Congress MLA’s statements, state party spokesperson Pankaj Chaturvedi said, “There is no need to react on statements by individual MLAs. Jyotiraditya Scindia is a senior Congress leader, who has time and again stated that he can’t dream of leaving Congress to join another party or form a new party.

The development on expected lines gave fresh ammo to the opposition BJP to fire fresh salvos at the ruling Congress.

“This is now out in the open that Scindia loyalists, be it MLAs or ministers are feeling neglected or humiliated despite their party being in power in MP. Everything isn’t alright when it comes to Scindia in Congress. It’s not clear whether he (Scindia) will form a new party or join another party, but it’s clear that all is not well with Scindia and his supporters in Congress,” said state BJP spokesperson Rajneesh Agrawal.

Importantly, two days back a huge controversy had erupted after it came to fore that Scindia had changed his twitter profile from “ex-union minister and former MP” to “public servant, cricket enthusiast.” Scindia, however, personally put to rest all political speculations per se the change of twitter profile, saying, it’s ridiculous, as the profile was changed a month back.

Importantly, quitting Congress to form a new party isn’t new for the powerful Scindia family, as Jyotiraditya Scindia’s ex-union minister father Madhav Rao Scindia too had quit the Congress and formed the Madhya Pradesh Vikas Congress in 1996. He won the 1996 Lok Sabha polls from Gwalior as the new party’s candidate, before returning to Congress fold again and winning the next LS polls two years later as Congress candidate from the same LS seat.

Since last few months, Jyotiraditya Scindia loyalist MLAs and minister have been publicly demanding that Scindia (who lost the 2019 LS polls to BJP candidate KP Yadav from pocket-borough Guna) be appointed the state Congress president.