BHOPAL: The income-tax raids on the residential and official premises of the colleagues of former chief minister Kamal Nath have generated a lot of heat in state politics. This is what has been evident in the Congress, as well as in the BJP. Both are caught in internal squabbling over the report.
The government is yet to take a decision on the report. But the politicians have begun to settle their scores with the members of their own parties on the pretext of it.
The Congress leaders dissatisfied with Nath’s leadership have started raising the issue. Such leaders want that the government should take action on the report that Nath and his colleagues may be in trouble. The dispute is on between the aspirants for the post of president of the state Congress and that of the Leader of the Opposition.
On the one hand, Nath has maintained a stoic silence over the matter. On the other hand, former chief minister Digvijaya Singh has plunged into action to save those police officers whose names have figured in the Income-Tax Department’s appraisal report. Singh is, however, yet to contradict the report in his statements. A few Congress leaders are waiting for the party high command’s decision on Nath. Only after that, they will take the next step.
BJP leaders giving different statements
Internal wrangle over the report is clear in the BJP, too. Besides Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, the party’s state unit president, VD Sharma, and home minister Narottam Mishra have been issuing statements on the matter.
Chouhan has clearly said the law will take its own course. Sharma has, however, demanded FIR against the guilty. He even said Kamal Nath’s election should be annulled. Only action has to be taken, after the inquiry by the Income-Tax Department and the Election Commission, Mishra said.
According to a few BJP leaders, politics has started, since the names of some supporters of Rajya Sabha member Jyotiraditya Scindia have figured in the report. Therefore, a group wants to heap pressure on Scindia on the basis of it. There will be ferment if the government takes action against the legislators and the ministers who have defected to the BJP from the Congress.
After winning 19 seats in the by-elections, Shivraj Singh Chouhan has emerged stronger. Therefore, a few leaders want to keep the government under pressure by demanding action against the Congress leaders on the basis of the report.
