Former Madhya Pradesh CM Digvijay Singh gets his favourite bungalow back

The former chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, Digvijay Singh (pictured), has got his favourite bungalow back. The new Congress government of Madhya Pradesh has allotted him his old bungalow, which is situated in the picturesque Shyamala Hill locality. In June this year, the Madhya Pradesh high court had asked the state government to make sure all former chief ministers vacated their government accommodation. That meant former chief ministers Kailash Joshi, Singh and Uma Bharti had to move out of their bungalows in the state capital. Then in July, Shivraj Singh Chouhan used his discretionary powers and allowed the former chief ministers, barring Singh, to retain their bungalows. The new Congress government has allotted the same bungalow to him for being a Rajya Sabha member. Singh had worked from various hotels in the run up to the Assembly elections in the state.

Changing social bio

Bharatiya Janata Party members have been quite aggressive in their use of social media. But some Madhya Pradesh leaders seem to be slacking off in recent weeks. Take former health minister of the state Rustam Singh, who lost in the Assembly polls recently, and is among a host of leaders who haven't updated their Twitter profiles. Singh's Twitter introduction still displays "Fir Rustam fir Shivraj, abki bar 200 paar" (Rustam and Shivraj once more; this time we will cross 200 seats). The BJP's slogan in the state in the run-up to the Assembly election was,"abki bar, 200 par". Former chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who led the state for 13 straight years, has shown more alacrity. He has changed his Twitter introduction, which now says, "The Common Man of Madhya Pradesh".

Manmohan's praise

The launch of former prime minister Manmohan Singh's works in New Delhi on Tuesday evening was attended not just by Congress leaders, but several former bureaucrats. After the event, Congress leaders Jairam Ramesh and Mani Shankar Aiyar probably returned home the happiest. The former PM referred to Ramesh twice during his conversation. He said Ramesh succeeded in fishing out some of the papers that he had written in the early 1970s that no one else had been able to locate. Also, Singh said, Ramesh would come up with suitable phraseology related to liberalisation, ushered in in 1991 by Singh as finance minister in Narasimha Rao's government. Singh also acknowledged the support Aiyar and late Nathu Ram Mirdha offered for his new industrial policy during a meeting of the All India Congress Committee in the early 1990s, when a majority of his party colleagues was opposed to it.