When our top leaders will unite, Madhya Pradesh Congress workers ask

BHOPAL: Absence of big central leaders from the Madhya Pradesh Congress' meetings has started to irk party workers.

On Tuesday, the state party gathered for a Jan Vedna Sammelan to plan a protest against demonetisation fall-out in the 480 blocks in Madhya Pradesh.

As usual, AICC general secretary and Rajya Sabha MP Digvijaya Singh could not attend because he was in Karnataka, MP from Chhindwara and former Union minister Kamal Nath is abroad and Congress' chief whip in the Lok Sabha and MP from Guna seat Jyotiraditya Scindia was in Goa for the party's election management.

In a crowded meeting hall in the PCC's old Jawahar Bhavan office, a party worker stood-up and asked former Union minister Suresh Pachauri the audacious question, "When will you leaders unite so we can fight the BJP?" Suresh Pachauri lost his temper and shouted at the man.

During the press conference, Congress' leader from Delhi Arvinder Singh Lovely faced a similar question from the media. He was asked when all Congress central leaders from the state will come together.

Lovely answered, "We will call a pandit, take out an auspicious time and then tell you."

Not just workers, party's second rung leaders are also peeved with the non-attendance of stalwarts. Veteran Congressman and former minister of the erstwhile Digvijaya Singh government, Hazarilal Raghuvanshi said, "All Congress leaders big and small will have to unite and meet AICC president Sonia Gandhi if the party is to be strengthened. Those leaders who do not want to unite should stay at home." Asked why the top leaders did not come for the meeting, Raghuvanshi said, "If Hazarilal Raghuvanshi does not attend a meeting, will the Congress party stop functioning?"