Congress MLA from Vijayraghavgarh Sanjay Pathak resigned from the Vidhan Sabha after being miffed by the distribution of tickets for the Lok Sabha polls. Pathak is the richest MLA in the house with declared assets of Rs. 121 crore. His firms are being probed by the Lokayukta in an alleged mining scam.
The mining baron and son of former minister Satyendra Pathak has opposed the nomination of former minister Raja Pateria from the Khajuraho seat. Pateria, a union leader of miners working for Mr. Sanjay, called him a “dhanpashu” (money cow) after filing his nomination.
After days of criticising the party’s functioning in public, Mr. Pathak resigned from all internal party offices he held, on Wednesday. On Thursday, in a press meet in Katni, he announced his resignation from the Assembly.
“The satraps who rule the Madhya Pradesh Congress Commmittee (MPCC) are violating Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi’s directives. The workers from my seat demanded that I resign to express their protest to the party. I have been raising issues of improper distribution of tickets since December. I have sent 10 emails to Mr. Gandhi and camped in Delhi for weeks with 10 MLAs to meet him, but he did not respond,” he said
The six satraps of the party here include Union Minister of State for Power Jyotiraditya Scindia, former Chief Minister Digvijaya Singh, former minister Ajay, Union Minister of Urban Development and Parliamentary Affairs Kamal Nath and former union minister Suresh Pachouri. The sixth satrap has been the MPCC president, who is currently Arun Yadav.
Mr. Pathak denied that he had any ambitions to fight the Lok Sabha polls, although he admitted that he “would consider joining any party that respects him and can develop the State and his constituency, he told this paper over phone from Katni.
