The Congress party made a scathing allegation against the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, Mohan Yadav, demanding his immediate resignation and a high-level independent inquiry into huge land grabs done by him or his family and related real estate companies.
Based on a detailed media investigation, the opposition blamed the Chief Minister’s family members for misusing their insider information for buying huge chunks of land in areas where there is some government announcement for infrastructure construction.
‘Looting of Mahakal Land’: Patwari charges massive increase in property holdings
Addressing a press conference, the Madhya Pradesh Congress president, Jitu Patwari, charged that the current ruling government of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has turned corrupt, citing some past instances. “Facts reveal that the BJP is involved in stealing Ram Temple funds and looting of Mahakal land,” Patwari alleged.
The opposition highlighted the following timeline of property growth of Chief Minister’s immediate family members:
Pre-CM property expansion (2021-2023): Between the year 2021 and his appointment as Chief Minister on 13th December 2023, his family members and relatives bought 253 acres of land in 194 different plots.
Total cumulative holdings: As per detailed land ownership records provided to the Congress, the total holdings have increased to 335 acres through 245 land plots.
Patwari insisted that the Chief Minister provide details of financial dealings related to these purchases and submit them to a judicial inquiry by a sitting Supreme Court judge.
Manipulation of the master plan for real estate benefits: Claims LoP
In his letter to the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, Leader of Opposition Umang Singhar described the situation as being one of the worst cases of land scandal in recent times in Madhya Pradesh. He alleged that the purchases were a clear-cut case of “insider trading, abuse of power, and corruption.”
Singhar said that Yadav had special knowledge of future road construction projects because of his past tenures:
Conflict of interest: The opposition members claimed that during his previous official tenures as Chairman of the Ujjain Development Authority and later as Higher Education Minister of Madhya Pradesh from 2021-2023, Yadav was fully aware of the planned road construction and infrastructure development projects.
“This is one of the biggest land scams in Madhya Pradesh,” Singhar alleged. “The Ujjain Master Plan 2035 was not redesigned for the public development of Ujjain but specifically to benefit the real estate interests of the Chief Minister’s family. Most of these plots sit right next to newly announced road projects or inside zones marked for conversion from agricultural to residential and commercial use.”
Purchase defended by government officials on the basis of historical commercial ventures
The Chief Minister of Bihar, Mohan Yadav, together with his office, has not officially commented on the questionnaire related to the discoveries, but some senior government officials of the state have defended the transactions under conditions of anonymity.
In response to the allegations made by the opposition, the officials have argued that it was not right to relate private business transactions to the political career of the Chief Minister because his family has been in the real estate business in the region for quite a long time.
