The Congress has finally gone for a generational change in Madhya Pradesh, appointing 50-year-old ex-minister Jitu Patwari the state Congress chief, two weeks after a resounding defeat in assembly polls under ex-chief minister Kamal Nath.
Further, the party has appointed Umang Singhar, also 50, the leader of opposition in state assembly while 38-year-old Hemant Katare has been made deputy leader of opposition.
While going in for the generational change, the Congress has also kept the caste equations in mind. Patwari comes from OBC community while Singhar is a tribal whereas Katare is from Brahmin community.
Though Patwari lost the 2023 assembly polls from Rau constituency where he had won in 2013 and 2018, he is considered one of the most active leaders of the younger generation. He comes from a farmers’ family in the crucial Malwa-Nimad region and is considered close to the Gandhi family. Patwari held the higher education portfolio in the Nath cabinet between December 2018 and March 2020.
Singhar, a four-time MLA, is the nephew of former leader of opposition and tall leader late Jamuna Devi. Though he keeps landing in controversy, he is a prominent young tribal face in the state and also close to the Gandhi family. Hemant’s father late Satyadev was a prominent leader in the Gwalior Chambal belt and had served as minister and leader of opposition before his demise.
Nath, Singh make way
The Congress had decided to fight the 2023 assembly polls under the leadership of Kamal Nath, 77 and Digvijaya Singh, 76 despite the fact that a Congress government run by Nath with active association of Singh had collapsed in 2020. The Congress had managed to win higher seats compared to the BJP in 2018 through a joint campaign by Nath, Singh and Jyotiraditya Scindia. It was Scindia’s decision to cross over to the BJP that led to the collapse of the Congress government and Nath and Singh had been blamed for not being able to save the government formed after a gap of 15 years.
However, after the collapse of the government, Nath became quite active in the state as he was retained as the state unit chief. Digvijaya Singh also continued an active role in the organizational matters and together they managed to whip up an atmosphere that seemed pro-Congress in the run up to the election.
But, as the polls neared, the party could not keep up the momentum and failed to score in the matter of candidate selection. Rather, a public ‘joke’ where Nath asked party leaders protesting ticket distribution to ‘tear the clothes’ of Singh, stirred up a controversy just ahead of polling.
There had been speculations that Nath might be asked to resign from his post last week following the loss. The ex-chief minister has maintained that he is not retiring and will continue his politics in Madhya Pradesh.
However, now with the helm in younger hands, the future role of Nath remains to be seen. There is likelihood that he may again contest Lok Sabha polls from his turf Chhindwara and field his son Nakul Nath, the current Member of Parliament from the seat, for the assembly seat that he (Kamal Nath) would vacate. Digivijaya Singh is a Rajya Sabha member with term up to 2026.
Baij continues, Mahant LoP in Chhattisgarh
Meanwhile in Chhattisgarh, the Congress has decided to continue with young tribal leader and Member of Parliament Deepak Baij as the party state chief. Baij, 42, represents the crucial Bastar Lok Sabha seat though he lost the recently concluded assembly polls. He had replaced Mohan Markam as the Chhattisgarh Congress chief in July this year – just a few months short of the assembly polls. The Congress lost comprehensively in the polls.
Meanwhile, senior leader and speaker in the 2018 assembly Charandas Mahant has been made leader of opposition. Mahant is one of the prominent leaders in the state coming from the northern Chhattisgarh. He was also the campaign committee chief for Congress in the recently concluded polls.