BJP left no stone unturned to insult Advani; cheated Sindhi community: Cong

Madhya Pradesh Congress president Kamal Nath on Saturday claimed BJP had left no stone unturned to insult party veteran L K Advani.

Nath and Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, a BJP MP, on Saturday addressed separate events of the Sindhi community in Bhopal and Gwalior, months ahead of the Assembly elections in the state.

Scindia termed Advani, a founding member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and former deputy prime minister, as the finest leader of the party.

Addressing the Sindhi community convention, Nath said, "During a marriage ceremony in 2008, Sindhi people told me that they would vote for BJP because of Advani. Where is Advani ji now? The BJP has left no stone unturned to insult him".

"The BJP has cheated the Sindhi community," the former chief minister alleged and appealed to the community to vote for Congress to protect their future.

Separately, Scindia said Sindhis are a prestigious society in India.

"Leaders of the Sindhi community have led this country. LK Advani fought against Congress throughout his life. He became the Deputy Prime Minister. Even today he is the finest leader of BJP," he told reporters after attending a Sindhi community gathering in Gwalior.

Without taking names, Scindia said the people who destroyed and instigated a conflict between societies, and committed genocide, are now teaching the lesson of unity.

Notably, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan a few month back had announced several sops for the Sindhi community in the state, including financial assistance of Rs 25,000 for pilgrimage to a holy site of the community in Ladakh.

He had also said that Sindhi refugees would be given ownership rights of the land in their procession under deeds (pattas) at a nominal price for which camps would be put up across the state. Chouhan had also promised to install the statue of teen revolutionary Hemu Kalani in Bhopal, Indore and Jabalpur.

In the 2018 Madhya Pradesh assembly elections, the Congress emerged as the single largest party by winning 114 seats in the 230-member House while the BJP bagged 109 seats.

The Congress went on to form a coalition government under Nath but it collapsed in March 2020 when nearly two dozen MLAs loyal to Jyotiraditya Scindia quit Congress and later joined the BJP, paving the way for the return of Shivraj Singh Chouhan as the chief minister once again.