When Congress MLAs raised ‘Jai Sri Ram’ slogans in MP Assembly

It was an unusual scene in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly when members of the Congress party shouted ‘Jai Sri Ram’ slogans. The incident happened on Monday after the oath taking ceremony of Nilanshu Chaturvedi, the Congress leader who recently won the Chitrakoot assembly bypolls.

Chaturvedi, who has been elected as an MLA for the first time, came to the Assembly with opposition leader Ajay Singh Chaturvedi. Soon after he took his oath, Congress leader Mukesh Nayak, along with others, started the ‘Jai Sri Ram’ slogans.

They also raised slogans like Chitrakoot is the city of lord Ram. And joining them was former chief minister Babulal Gaur.

However, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) did not hesitate in taking a dig at the Congress, with Panchayat and Rural Development Minister Gopal Bhargava saying “Ram ji karenge Congress ka beda paar” (lord Ram will sail the Congress through).

The Assembly broke into laughter after the state minister made the remark. He further said that the Congress had “realised the importance of lord Ram quite late, and are now moving in the streets of Gujarat”.

Congress leader Nilanshu Chaturvedi had defeated BJP’s Shankar Dayal Tripathi by over 14,000 votes in the Chitrakoot Assembly bypoll earlier this month.

Chaturvedi had led right from the start of vote count at on November 12 and kept increasing his winning lead. He was declared the winner after 19 rounds of counting.

The election was called after the death of Chitrakoot's Congress legislator Prem Singh. A total of 12 candidates were in the fray including nine independents.

Reacting to the victory, the Congress party had said that it showed that the "winds of change" were blowing in the political landscape in the country.

"The winds of change are in the air. Many thanks to the people of #Chitrakoot for their faith and trust in the Congress party," Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala had tweeted.