Congress has always let MLAs to pick the CM : Digvijaya Singh

India वोट Kar | December 17, 2018

The Congress has won most of the Assembly constituencies along the Narmada, veteran party leader. Former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Digvijaya Singh told ET in an exclusive interview, emphasising the importance of his Narmada ‘parikrama’ which he had termed a spiritual journey.

“Although my Narmada parikrama was an absolutely non-political journey, we won most of the seats along the Narmada,” Singh said, after the Congress wrested the state from the BJP in the closest election fought in the country so far. As someone who worked in the background, campaigned extensively and managed to get his way in the ticket distribution, Singh is enthused by the victory. Two months after he was heard saying in a video that the Congress lost votes if he gave speeches, Singh explained his statement for the first time. “Well, there was a sustained campaign against me by the BJP and unfortunately some of our Congress leaders got influenced by this BJP propaganda against me,” he said.

Digvijaya Singh defended Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s decision to favour younger guard Pilot and Scindia

As Kamal Nath and Ashok Gehlot are set to be sworn in as chief ministers of Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan respectively, Singh defended Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s decision to favour the old guard over the younger Pilot and Scindia NSE 0.00 %. “It is not about experience versus youth. Congress has always encouraged youth leaders. It is not the debate. Had youth got majority of votes, they would have become CM ,” he said “
“The process was that everyone was asked for their opinion and whoever got a majority was made the chief minister. Unfortunately, the media completely spun it out of proportions. In MP, Kamal (Nath) got 90% of the votes and was declared the chief minister,” Singh said.

The veteran Congress leader said that this process had always been followed as party presidents always took into consideration the views of MLAs. In 1993, he said, he was elected as chief minister for the first time although the party president at the time, PV Narasimha Rao, wanted Shyama Charan Shukla to become the chief minister. “I got the most number of votes and the observers called Narasimha Rao, who said let the MLAs’ wish prevail,” he said.