Sanjay Pathak says he will not join Congress

In a new twist to Madhya Pradesh politics centred on three Rajya Sabha seats, Sanjay Pathak, BJP MLA who reportedly met Chief Minister Kamal Nath on Thursday night, said on Friday that he is not going to join the Congress and will remain with the BJP.

Sanjay Pathak's father Satyendra Pathak was the district Congress president in Jabalpur and was a minister in the Digvijaya Singh government in the state.

Earlier in the day, Congress sources said Sanjay Pathak was about to join the Congress.

"This is a tit-for-tat formula engineered by Digvijaya and Kamal nath to counter BJP's move to destabilise the state government," said a senior leader.

Party sources said the "operation" targeted at the BJP has been jointly engineered by Digvijaya and Chief Minister Kamal Nath as both are camping in the state capital Bhopal and eyeing the disgruntled BJP legislators.

Meanwhile, in signs of dissensions within the Congress, Mahendra Singh Sisodia, a Minister in the Kamal Nath-led Congress government, while reaffirming his loyalty for Jyotiraditya Singh, said: If Scindia ji is overlooked, then a real trouble will start for the government." IANS