New Delhi: The ceaseless factionalism in the Congress in Madhya Pradesh that was presumed to have been contained in the run-up to the Assembly elections ripped through the fragile veneer when general secretary Deepak Babaria was roughed up by party workers on Sunday.

The ugly incident at the Rewa Circuit House embarrassed the Congress and a deeply unhappy Rahul Gandhi met senior leaders from the state on Tuesday and expressed concern.

Kamal Nath, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Digvijaya Singh, Ajay Singh and Arun Yadav were present at the meeting that the party insisted had been fixed earlier to plan strategy. It was decided at the meeting that the Congress president would embark on a bus yatra in the state next month.

Although the meeting's focus was on candidate selection, the election campaign and the party manifesto, unity of purpose among top leaders was also discussed.

Babaria, the general secretary in charge of the poll-bound state, was heckled and abused after he said either Kamal Nath or Scindia would become chief minister if the Congress came to power. Supporters of Ajay Singh, son of the late Arjun Singh, were infuriated at the exclusion of their leader from the list of possible contenders.

Some reports alleged Babaria was also slapped. The general secretary represents the high command and an attack on him is an insult to the party president.

But Babaria, describing this as a small incident, made a curious allegation. He told The Telegraph: "Some Youth Congress boys created a ruckus after I talked about our chief minister candidates. I have noticed the RSS-BJP have infiltrated our organisation in Madhya Pradesh and a small section of the party is working to deliberately create trouble. In many places, Congress workers, under obligation of BJP ministers and leaders, are creating trouble. This incident too was plotted by them."

Party workers from the state, which will vote this year-end, say all top leaders were zealously protecting their own turfs and that factionalism manifested itself in every activity despite the presumption of unity. "Even the composition of a small committee is decided on the basis of pulls and pressures of various factions," a former MP said.

In an attempt at damage-control over the attack, party spokesperson Shobha Oza told The Telegraph: "This was a pre-planned conspiracy by the BJP and no Congress member was involved in the attack. The people of Madhya Pradesh realised after a long time that there is a home minister in the state. He offered security to Babaria but was missing when women were being raped and farmers shot. There has been 36,000 rapes under the BJP rule so far."

Home minister Bhupendra Singh had attempted to fish in troubled waters after news of the assault on Babaria surfaced. He said the state government was willing to provide security.

Oza said: "The Congress leaders can look after themselves. Let him explain why the state was turned into the most dangerous place for women in the country."

But there have been other unseemly incidents too. State unit chief Kamal Nath's private secretary was roughed up a few days ago, and there was an attempt to create a ruckus at a Digvijaya meeting too.

Another embarrassment came when the Congress-run daily National Herald prominently published a survey predicting the BJP's supremacy in the state. While Congress leaders are talking of a sweep, the National Herald published a survey conducted by a Tamil Nadu-based Spick Media Network which said the BJP would win a clear majority with 147 seats if the Congress and the BSP fought separately.