Ex-chief minister Kamal Nath will lead the Congress battle for 2023 assembly polls, senior party leaders of Madhya Pradesh decided at a crucial meeting held at the residence of Nath late on Monday evening.
The meeting was important in the sense that it was a rare assembly of all senior party leaders including Rajya Sabha member Digvijaya Singh, former state party presidents Suresh Pachauri, Kantilal Bhuria and Arun Yadav, former leader of opposition Ajay Singh and all former ministers of 15-month Congress rule from December 2018 to March 2020.
This gathering gave out the message that the state leadership was united and was willing to take up the 2023 assembly campaign under Kamal Nath’s stewardship.
After the meeting, ex-ministers Jitu Patwari and Tarun Bhanot told media persons that similar coordination meetings will be held twice every month. They also said that the Congress would fight the 2023 polls on people’s issues – mainly price rise, corruption, unemployment, farmers’ issues as well as misgovernance of BJP and Shivraj Singh Chouhan, economic anarchy and disruption of social harmony.
The ministers said that a detailed work plan has been drawn out and soon the party would launch mass agitation from streets to the Assembly on these issues under the leadership of Kamal Nath.
There have been rumours about continuing internal sparring in the Congress and that Kamal Nath had been left alone on way to the 2023 assembly polls battle. There have been talks about rifts between Nath and Digvijaya Singh and that Arun Yadav and Ajay Singh were in a dissenting mood. The fact that many of these leaders skipped many events and meetings during the past few months further flamed the rumours.
Also, there were rumours that younger leaders like Jitu Patwari were trying to chart their own course, especially after he decided on a solo boycott of the governor’s customary address during the recently concluded budget session of state assembly.
The Monday meeting sought to put a stop to these speculations and give out a message of united front and confidence in the leadership of Kamal Nath who holds the posts of state Congress president as well as leader of opposition. There had been strong rumours that Nath might announce stepping down as LoP during the meeting, but he scuttled the rumours earlier in the day saying that he kept on holding meetings at various levels and the Monday meeting was with former ministers (and other senior leaders) where he would seek suggestions/opinions and put forth his own thoughts.
On Monday, a meeting of the state unit of Youth Congress was also held in the presence of national president Srinivas B.V. and attended by Kamal Nath. The focus of the meeting was to expand the network and activities of Youth Congress and take up the issue of unemployment aggressively. Nath asked the Youth Congress office bearers and members to come out of Facebook and WhatsApp based politics and fight on the streets on issues of common people.
Narottam Mishra takes a dig
On Tuesday, state home minister and government spokesman Narottam Mishra took a dig at the Congress decision to make Kamal Nath the face of 2023 polls. “He is becoming a groom at the age of renunciation (sanyas ki umra mein sehraa baandh liya unhone),” Mishra said adding that Nath will be 77 years old at the time of assembly polls and this makes it clear under whose leadership the Congress is planning to fight on the streets. He also said that Nath continues to be ex-CM, LoP and the state Congress president and the Congress also wants him to become the future CM.
