BHOPAL: Congress party on Saturday vehemently denied there was any rift between senior leaders of Madhya Pradesh after former MP Jyotiraditya Scindia left half-way through the Coordination Committee meeting held at the New Delhi residence of chief minister Kamal Nath Top leaders of the state Congress including CM Nath, former chief minister Digvijaya Singh , AICC general secretary in-charge of state affairs Deepak Babaria, former Union ministers Jyotiraditya Scindia and Arun Yadav along with minister for higher education Jeetu Patwari were present in the meeting of the PCC Coordination Committee which started around 11 am.But 45 minutes later, Scindia left the meeting venue. “It was a productive meeting and we will take forward the work positively,” Scindia told reporters.Speaking to TOI over telephone, AICC general secretary in-charge of state affairs Deepak Babaria claimed, “It was a very good meeting attended by all senior leaders of the state. Jyotiraditya Scindia had informed me on Friday that he had other appointments at 12 noon so he would leave the meeting early. He left around 11:45 am.” Other leaders sat through the entire meeting till 1:30 pm.Babaria also said that the meeting was first scheduled for Bhopal but venue was changed because Jyotiraditya Scindia had expressed his inability to attend. The venue was then changed to New Delhi.Differences between chief minister Kamal Nath and Jyotiraditya Scindia has been in the open for the past eight months after the latter openly criticized the Congress government here over crop damages survey, farm loan waiver scheme and recently the non-regularisation of agitating contractual teachers. Contractual teachers in the state have been protesting demanding regularisation of their services for since December.Addressing a gathering of contractual teachers in Niwadi district on Thursday, Scindia announced his support for the protestors and threatened to hit the streets against the Kamal Nath government if the demands were not met.“Your demands were made part of the Congress’ election manifesto. That manifesto is revered text for us. If the promises made in the manifesto are not fulfilled, then don’t think you will be left alone. Jyotiraditya Scindia will hit the streets along your side,” he said. However, he also said that the Congress government in the state is only a year old but if promises are not fulfilled then he will become “shield and sword” for contractual teachers.Chief minister Kamal Nath was miffed after Scindia’s open support to teachers protesting his government. Asked about Scindia’s threat to hit street with the teachers, CM said, “Let him hit the streets.”Deepak Babaria explained that these incidents had no bearing on Saturday’s meeting. “The meeting was on the upcoming assembly bypolls in Jaura and Agar-Malwa, also the urban local body polls. Discussions were also held for the appointments to be made in the independent boards and corporations.”A major issue that came up for discussions were workers’ complaints against ministers. It has been repeatedly claimed that ministers do not respond to workers’ telephone calls or their problems faced at the grassroots level.“The Coordination Committee will meet again next week and frame a mechanism for better coordination between workers and ministers. We will prepare some nomenclature and system. Workers should not be ignored and ministers also have their dignity to maintain. Sometimes ministers cannot oblige workers’ demands if it goes against the laws,” Babaria said.