MP CM Chouhan serves Rs 10 crore defamation notice to Sonia Gandhi

Mangalore Today/NDTV

Bhopal, Nov 18, 2013: Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan has served a Rs 10 crore defamation notice to Congress President Sonia Gandhi and State Congress President Kanti Lal Bhuria. The defamation notice has been served on a Congress advertisement on corruption in the Shivraj Singh Chouhan family.

The ad says, "A greedy family has looted Madhya Pradesh." The Congress has been taking digs at Shivraj Singh Chouhan over alleged corruption in the recent past.

The Congress on Saturday had said the Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister was merely making "hollow" claims ahead of November 25 Assembly polls. "Chouhan used to say that announcements are made by brave persons only, but I believe that a ’Veer’ (warrior) never makes hollow promises," Union Minister of State for Power and Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia said while addressing a poll meeting on Saturday night at Chhavni Chouraha.

Scindia, also the chairman of State Congress’s assembly elections campaign committee, said the ruling BJP government has "ruined" the state during its 10-year rule by patronising corruption.

Scindia even dubbed the BJP’s MP manifesto as "the bundle of lies". "The poll manifesto released by the BJP today is nothing but a bundle of lies as Chouhan’s government has cheated people at every step in the name of development," Scindia said while addressing rallies in support of the party candidates at Pandhana and Nepanagar.

"In the last ten years of BJP rule in Madhya Pradesh, lawlessness prevailed and the state has become totally a worst state," he said, adding that the election is not a fight between political rivals but indeed for the people’s future.

The scion of the royal family also urged the voters to keep their disputed electricity bills safely, saying that "the Congress after coming to power in the state would be waiving them".

Scindia, also the state unit election campaign committee chief, promised to write off agricultural loans up to Rs 51,000 for farmers. Dubbing BJP as "anti-farmer", he said the saffron party had always misled farmers and backed off from its promise of waiving agricultural loans.