Fishy moves: Scindia removes 'Congress' from Twitter bio; 30 MLAs missing

A lot is happening at the Madhya Pradesh unit of the Congress party. After Gandhi siblings Rahul and Priyanka did not wish state Chief Minister Kamal Nath on his birthday, party general secretary Jyotiraditya Scindia (pictured) was found to have removed the party’s name from his Twitter bio. Then, more than 30 Congress MLAs reportedly went missing. While some party leaders said they had not been able to establish contact with these MLAs for the past week or so, Scindia rejected such reports and said he could call them up for proof. These MLAs are said to be the ones who had been demanding Nath be replaced as the Madhya Pradesh chief minister with Scindia.

Cong elders’ jibe

After Rahul Gandhi relinquished the Congress president’s post following the Lok Sabha election debacle, the old guard in the Uttar Pradesh unit had been feeling sidelined. Their disenchantment only grew stronger once Priyanka Gandhi Vadra took over the reigns of the state’s party unit completely. Following their continuing verbal diatribe against the new party setup, 10 Congress elders, including AICC member Santosh Singh and former UP legislator Siraj Mehndi, were served notices, and subsequently expelled from the party for six years. Digging in their heels, the defiant old guard has observed that the grand old party was being run as a “private limited company” by a few leaders in utter disregard of the past contribution of the seniors.

Who will it be? 

The Aam Aadmi Party on Monday claimed that "strong infighting" within the Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) forced Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri to clarify that they have not finalised the chief ministerial candidate for the Assembly elections due early next year. Puri had on Sunday said that the BJP will fight the assembly election under the leadership of party's Delhi unit chief Manoj Tiwari and ensure that he becomes the Chief Minister, only to backtrack hours later. Seeking to play down his earlier statement, Puri, Union minister for housing and urban affairs, said he meant that the BJP would win under the leadership of Tiwari. The BJP has not formally announced a chief ministerial candidate for the upcoming polls in the national capital. The AAP claimed BJP leaders Vijender Gupta and Vijay Goel along with Tiwari were all competing to be seen as the party's chief ministerial candidate.