Bhopal: A day after Congress MLA Laxman Singh protested outside his elder brother and party veteran Digvijaya Singh's house, the legislator met former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan here, setting tongues wagging in the state's political circles. However, both Chouhan and the MLA termed the meeting as a "courtesy call".
The legislator and his supporters on Tuesday protested in front of Digvijaya Singh's residence in Bhopal, demanding that the senior Congress leader set a date for a function to announce the creation of Chachoda district. He had ended the dharna after his elder brother intervened later in the evening.
He met BJP vice-president Chouhan here on Wednesday morning and later dubbed it as a "courtesy call", saying no other meaning should be drawn out of it. After the meeting, Chouhan also told reporters that, "It was a courtesy meeting. We meet occasionally... We also support the demand that Chachoda be made a district."
Chachoda is Laxman Singh's Assembly constituency and the MLA claimed Chief Minister Kamal Nath in July this year had announced to make it a district.
Located in Guna district, a stronghold of senior Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia, Chachoda is a part of the Rajgarh Lok Sabha constituency which has been represented by Digvijaya Singh several times.
After the Congress’ ouster from power in Madhya Pradesh in 2003, Singh had switched over to BJP and won two Lok Sabha elections on a BJP ticket. However, in 2010, the saffron party showed him the door for speaking against then party president Nitin Gadkari.
He returned to the Congress in 2013 but could not regain his lost position in the party. He is said to be unhappy with the denial of a ministerial berth in Nath's cabinet and recently spoke out against his own government.