Cong, BJP indulge in war of words in poll-bound Madhya Pradesh

With the Assembly elections approaching in Madhya Pradesh, the war of words between the Opposition Congress and ruling BJP has intensified.

While the Congress has alleged widespread corruption by the government, the BJP has raked up the issue of sliding rupee, blaming the UPA government for its downfall.

'When the UPA took charge of the country, rupee was equivalent to Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi's age (43) against a dollar. Now it is trading at around the age of Congress President Sonia Gandhi and if the UPA remained in power for some more time, the Indian currency will soon touch the age of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh,' Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said here yesterday while addressing party workers after the end of the first leg of his statewide 'Janashirwad Yatra'.

Chouhan also said that after gauging the people's mood, he was confident that the BJP will score a historic win in the Assembly elections, slated by year end.

Even as the Opposition Congress earlier tried to target Chouhan for the alleged dumper scam and construction of a warehouse within the radius of an archaeologically protected monument in Vidisha, the CM, during the launch of his yatra at Ujjain, retorted by saying, 'I challenge them to ask Congress President Sonia Gandhi about the wealth acquired by her son-in-law Robert Vadra.'

However, in no mood to budge before the saffron outfit, Congress General Secretary Digvijay Singh yesterday alleged that the RSS gives training in the making of bombs.

State Industries Minister Kailash Vijaywargiya was quick to ask why Digvijay Singh, who was MP Chief Minister for 10 years, did not take any action against the organisation during his tenure.

'When RSS was making bombs, was Digvijay making bhajiyas?' Vijaywargiya said in an SMS circulated to reporter last night by BJP's state unit media in-charge, Dr Hitesh Vajpayee.

Leader of Opposition in state Assembly, Ajay Singh has also been frequently training his guns on Chouhan over the issue of alleged corruption by his close relatives.

He compared the alleged mining scam in MP with the one at Bellary in Karnataka and also termed the recent Pre-Medical Test (PMT) scam as bigger than the fodder scam of Bihar.