The minister's son was arrested (and bailed) two days later following a public outcry. By then it came out that the minister had mercury lights and airconditioners at his residence (in Maharajpur) – and all without a proper electricity connection. He has thus been consuming the power without paying it for no one knows how long. That is just another instance of how the ruling BJP and its leaders are serving the people in Madhya Pradesh.

          And what is the Congress doing as the main opposition party about this sorry state of affairs?  Virtually nothing. It appears that the Congress has put on hold its crusade against the BJP and the alleged misdeeds of its government. Before that, it wants to settle scores within itself. The target now has become clear. It's Jamuna Devi. A group of Congressmen from Dhar district, from where Jamuna Devi hails, descended on the State capital and held a demonstration in front of the residence of PCC president Suresh Pachauri demanding removal of Jamuna Devi to save the Congress. Pachauri received their memorandum, heard them sympathetically and assured them that he would convey their grievances to Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

          The group, led by former MLA Surendra Singh Neemkheda and Dhar District Congress vice-president Balmukund Singh Gautam, also held demonstrations in front of the PCC office and Jamuna Devi's residence before dispersing. Jamuna Devi, their allegation was, had been working against the interests of the Congress. Jamuna Devi had invited them to come inside and hold discussions on whatever problems they had but they refused, and for "good" reason.

          Their grouse against Jamuna Devi is not significant; it has been there for long. The timing is significant. Earlier, there was probably no one who would listen to the grumblers or in whom they had faith. Now they seem to have found a saviour in Pachauri who, having no mass base and having never won an election, seems to see a threat to his future position (as chief minister?) in Jamuna Devi, Leader of the Opposition since 2003 and responsible for causing one embarrassment after another for chief minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan and his cabinet colleagues. He seems to have got all the more nervous after State Mahila Congress president Shobha Ojha (known to be a Pachauri protégé) had publicly announced that Jamuna Devi would be the next Congress chief minister of the State. Pachauri as the PCC president, and Ajay Singh (Rahul Bhaiya) as the chairman of the Congress Campaign Committee have so far failed to make an impact as the effective leaders of the opposition.

When Pachauri, as PCC president, went to Dhar along with Jamuna Devi, the latter had told Pachauri to keep away from Balmukund Singh Gautam whom she had described as the "liquor mafia", responsible for sending, in connivance with the local administration, thousands of tribals to jail for trying to brew their own liquor as permitted by the law. Jamuna Devi had refused to share a vehicle with Gautam during a party rally and Pachauri was left with no option but to ask Gautam to get down. Gautam and company boycotted the public meeting which was addressed by Pachauri and Jamuna Devi. However, the PCC chief later went to Gautam's house and spent some time with him, making it clear to the public where he stood vis-à-vis the Leader of Opposition.

          Should it be surprising that Gautam leads a group of Congressmen (most of them said to be in the employment of his sprawling liquor business) to Bhopal to demand Jamuna Devi's removal and Pachauri gives them a sympathetic hearing? Surendra Singh Neemkheda, a former MLA, was another important Dhar Congress leader in the anti-Jamuna Devi demonstrators. Neemkheda belongs to the Arjun Singh camp. The supporters of Arjun Singh and Digvijay Singh, though not happy with Pachauri's appointment as the PCC chief, were only too happy to make a common cause with those causing trouble for Jamuna Devi, a tribal leader. The two Singhs' antipathy to the tribal leaders trying to assert themselves is not a secret in Madhya Pradesh.

          The Dhar incident was not the first or the only one to bring to the fore the rift between Pachauri and Jamuna Devi. Soon after his appointment as PCC chief, Pachauri had addressed a well-attended public meeting at Katni. There, too, the Leader of Opposition had warned Pachauri against giving prominence to local Congress leader Sanjay Pathak against whom there are serious allegations of usurping the lands of the tribals. (Some local leaders had even brought to Rahul Gandhi's knowledge during his visit to the area how the Congress leader had been fraudulently depriving the tribals of their lands and Gandhi was said to have assured them that he would look into the matter). Jamuna Devi had later told Pachauri, during their visit to Indore, to keep away from a local Congress leader who was facing criminal cases including one under 307 of Indian Penal Code. At both the place, Pachauri had disregarded Jamuna Devi's advice as he had done in Dhar.

          With the Rajput and Brahman leaders having ganged up against her, Jamuna Devi seems to be facing isolation in the party. This makes Shivraj Singh Chauhan and his ministers the obvious beneficiaries. Not that the septuagenarian tribal leader was earlier getting any support from the organisation in her campaign against the "anti-people activities" of the ruling party. But now she will be engaged more in protecting her position from her own party leaders.