Ending months of suspense, the Congress on Thursday finally appointed veteran leader Kamal Nath as president of its Madhya Pradesh unit and handed over the reins of the campaign to the young Jyotiraditya Scindia. The party also named four working presidents — Tribal leader Bala Bacchan, senior legislator Ramnivas Rawat, Indore MlA Jitu Patwari and party leader Surendra Chaudhary.
The party appointed Girish Chodankar as the Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) chief for Goa, replacing Shantaram Naik, who had resigned a few days ago. “Congress president Rahul Gandhi has cleared the appointment of Kamal Nath as PCC president
of Madhya Pradesh and Jyotiraditya Scindia as chairman, Campaign Committee of the State,” AICC general secretary Ashok Gehlot said in a statement.
The appointments come a few months before the MP State Assembly elections, where the Congress is seeking to wrest power from the BJP.
The chief ministerial candidate has not yet been decided as the choice still seems open with both Kamal Nath and Scindia in the race, a Congress leader said.
The decision to appoint Kamal Nath as the Madhya Pradesh Congress unit president and Jyotiraditya Scindia as the campaign committee chief is being seen as a balancing act in the faction-ridden party in the poll-bound State.
The appointment of Jyotiraditya Scindia, the Member of Parliament from Guna, as the campaign committee chairman will give the party a strong face against three-term BJP Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.
“The move will balance the faction-ridden party in a major way as among all the top Congress leaders of the State, Nath’s stature is very high and he has the capacity to take along all of them,” a senior Congress leader told PTI requesting anonymity.
“Both Nath and Scindia get well. Nath had also openly supported Scindia’s candidature for the chief ministerial post on various occasions,” the senior leader said.
There have been talks of internal factionalism in the party and its workers are said to be divided among four factions -- headed by general secretary Digvijay Singh, Nath, Scindia and Suresh Pachori. Analysts feel the internal division could hurt the party’s prospects in the Assembly polls due later this year.
Another party leader claimed that Congress general secretary and former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijay Singh played a major role in paving way for the appointment of Nath as the State party president.
“Digvijay had vocally supported Nath’s candidature during his ‘Narmada Parikrama Yatra’ which concluded recently,” he said.
Soon after his appointment, Nath assured to work with full dedication to defeat the “non-secular parties”. “I am committed to give my best to ensure the defeat of non-secular parties. As president, I will work dedicatedly and with full coordination to defeat the BJP and I thank Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi for reposing faith in me,” Nath tweeted.