Congress’ regional satraps in Madhya Pradesh made mockery of the party vice president Rahul Gandhi’s formula and guidelines for providing Assembly tickets.
It has now become talk of the town that Rahul failed to impress the regional satraps in the State and the eagerness shown by him to implement his formula and claims during state visit that tickets for assembly elections would be distributed three months ahead of polls have fallen flat.
There were no takers for Rahul’s much talked about Karnataka formula in Madhya Pradesh as the regional Satraps refused to bow down before party vice president line and went all out to get tickets for their kin and supporters. The infighting among the senior party leaders to get tickets for their choicest ones deteriorated conditions so much in the election bound state that the grand old party has failed to announce its complete list of candidates till date when only two dates are left for filing of nominations.
Sources within the state Congress on condition of anonymity informed that the senior party leaders though showed off that they are strictly following the All India Congress Committee (AICC) guidelines for ticket distribution, but the fact remained that they were not ready to buy the party line as it would end their influence.
Notably, Rahul Gandhi during his visit to the State in May this year made it clear to the party cadres that no leader could get ticket for them, as only those ticket aspirants would be considered for ticket who would find place in the panel formed after report of AICC and MPCC observers.
Congress general secretary and former chief minister Digvijay Singh though pretended publicly that he could not get ticket for them but the fact remain that he left no stone unturned to get ticket for his supporters and in the process put the party in problem causing delay in announcement of party tickets in the state.
Similarly, other regional Satraps of the State including union ministers Kamalnath and Jyotiraditya Scindia who also heads the state election campaigning committee, former union minister and former state president Suresh Pachouri, former union minister Arun Yadav and former AICC spokesman and MP Satyavrat Chaturvedi pressurized the party to get tickets for their supporters causing much embarrassment to the party.