Hashtag Campaign Bares Rift as Digvijaya Poster Missing From Rahul Gandhi Rally, He Counters

Bhopal: Hours after a mega show of unity in front of Congress president Rahul Gandhi in Bhopal, signs of a rift in the party’s state unit came to the fore ahead of the upcoming assembly elections.

The hashtag ‘Digvijay4CM’ started trending on social media on Monday evening. The two-time MP chief minister, however, was quick to distance himself from the trend. Taking to Twitter on Tuesday, he clarified that he neither was he the CM candidate and nor does he harbour any ambitions for the post.

“Whoever has started Digvijay4CM is not my well-wisher. I have been CM MP for a decade and there is no question of my going back on my statement that I AM NOT A CM CANDIDATE. I am not someone who would say something and do something else,” he wrote on the micro-blogging site.

The tweets using the hashtag had claimed that Digvijaya was the best candidate for CM along with photos of his Narmada Yatra and other religious processions.

Adding to the speculation of a rift was the fact that his cut-out was missing from the venue where Gandhi addressed party workers on Monday morning. Cut-outs of all the first and second rung leaders of MP Congress were displayed.

The BJP did not miss out on the chance to question this absence. CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan called Digvijaya his elder brother and questioned the “treatment meted out to him”.

BJP spokesperson Rajnish Agrawal asked whether the Congress did not put up his poster to hush up his ‘disastrous’ tenure.

Digvijaya, however, rejected the criticism and said he had himself asked the party not to put up his images or banners. He also took a jibe at BJP, saying that his party takes care of him quite well.

On public platforms, he has expressed unwillingness to be the chief minister candidate and wished to work for party organisation.

Earlier, similar online campaigns have been run on social media in favour of Kamal Nath and Jyotiraditya Scindia over declaration of chief ministerial candidate ahead of Assembly elections likely later this year.