Rebel MP Congress MLAs swear by Scindia, flay Kamal Nath

Bengaluru:Swearing allegiance to Jyotiraditya Scindia, who joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) after quitting the Congress, Madhya Pradesh's rebel Congress legislators on Tuesday said they would stay put with their leader.

"As Scindia is our leader, we will always stay with him. He taught us a lot. I will always stay with him even if I have to jump into a well," rebel MLA Imarti Devi told reporters here in Hindi.

The rebels, including six former ministers, have been staying in a resort on the city's outskirts for over a week.

Alleging that Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath never heard them even for 15 minutes after they were elected 15 months ago, party lawmaker Govind Singh Rajput said he had not been able to take up development in his constituency so far.

"Kamal Nath never heard us even for 15 minutes. Whom should we talk to for development in our constituency?" lamented Rajput.

Expressing unhappiness with the functioning of the government, Rajput said in every cabinet meeting, Nath would talk about the development of Chindwara only, as it is his home constituency and not bother about other regions.

"Many legislators are unhappy with Nath and the way the government has been working. We do not even feel safe to go back to Bhopal. We will go if we are assured of safety by the central security forces," asserted Rajput.

Echoing similar feelings, party legislator Rajvardan Singh said they (rebels) were 23 and 22 of them were in Bengaluru since a week.

"We have submitted our resignations to the Assembly Speaker (Narmada Prasad Prajapati) and requested him to accept them. Though he summoned us to meet him last Friday (March 13), we could not go on that day for some reason," Singh said.

Reiterating their loyalty to Scindia, another rebel (Silawat Tulsiram) also sought the protection of central forces as they can't trust the state police, which is under the control of Nath.