Scindia loyalist sits on dharna outside MP House to remind CM of unfulfilled poll promise

Saturday’s development came a day after the Congress MLA Munnalal Goyal wrote a letter to the CM, lamenting that he and his ministers had no time to listen to the concerns of his own party’s MLAs.
Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia (Photo | PTI)
Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia (Photo | PTI)

BHOPAL: A ruling Congress MLA -- who is among the legislators considered close to ex-Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia – staged a dharna outside the Madhya Pradesh Vidhan Sabha building for an hour on Saturday, reminding the Chief Minister Kamal Nath and state government about the unfulfilled poll promise of rendering pattas (residential plots) to landless poor in the state.

The dharna by the Gwalior East MLA Munnalal Goyal happened at a time when Scindia is on a three-day visit to Madhya Pradesh, triggering fresh speculation of the ex-Union minister being among the favourites for the MP Congress chief’s post and a frontrunner for a Rajya Sabha berth from the state.

Saturday’s development took place a day after the Congress MLA wrote a letter to the CM, lamenting that he and his ministers had no time to listen to the concerns of his own party’s MLAs.

In the letter, Goyal also highlighted the ill-treatment being meted out to Congress workers by the local administration in Gwalior as well as bulldozers demolishing the dwellings of landless poor families, forcing them to live under the open sky amid the chilling cold.

“This dharna near the statue of Mahatma Gandhi is neither against the CM nor the government. It’s just to remind the CM and government about the 2018 assembly poll promise of rendering pattas (residential plots) to landless poor. It’s been over a year since our party returned to power in MP, but nothing has been done on that poll promise. Six months ago, I raised in the Vidhan Sabha the issue of 1200 landless poor families of Gwalior. I also wrote several letters about it to the CM. The urban development and housing minister Jaivardhan Singh had assured to render pattas to the landless poor in Gwalior, but nothing has happened since then,” alleged Goyal on Saturday.

Goyal is the second Congress MLA to have recently raised the issue of neglect of Congress MLAs concerns in the Kamal Nath-led government.

Earlier, on January 13, the Congress MLA from Gadarwara in Narsinghpur district, Sunita Patel, had publicly expressed helplessness and disappointment over the failure to check rampant illegal sand mining in the river Narmada. She had said that all her efforts to stop illegal mining in the river had turned futile. Patel had announced that she would stage a dharna over the issue from January 22 and added that if she still remained unable to check illegal mining in the Narmada, she would tender her resignation before the same sacred river.

Reacting to the two Congress MLAs resorting to a dharna to get their concerns addressed, despite their own party's government being in power, Leader of Opposition and senior BJP MLA Gopal Bhargava tweeted on Saturday, “Forget about the deaf and mute state government not listening to the opposition. Even the Congress MLAs Munnalal Goyal and Sunita Patel are forced to remind the CM and the government about its poll promises. This clearly exposes that the Congress MLAs themselves are disillusioned with their own government.”

Scindia, on the second day of his visit to MP, had highlighted before journalists on Friday that the concerns of party workers and MLAs need to be heard and addressed by the government.

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