Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath on Friday met Congress president Sonia Gandhi at her residence amid reports of a tussle among various factions in the Madhya Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC).
Mr. Nath also heads the MPCC and reports say his colleague and former Lok Sabha member Jyotiraditya Scindia is peeved at being “sidelined” from State politics. He is reported to have given an ultimatum to his party or he could explore other options. Asked about it, Mr. Nath said, “I don’t believe it. I don’t think that’s the case.”
Scindia supporters
Mr. Scindia’s supporters, including Ministers in the State government, have been quite vocal about making him the State chief and were upset with the party for making him the Chairman of the Screening Committee to decide candidates for the Maharashtra Assembly elections. They argued that it was a way to keep Mr. Scindia out of M.P. politics while other names like Ajay Singh, son of late Arjun Singh, were being considered.
“I have been saying for the past six months that there should be a new Congress chief and I repeated it today. Since I became the Chief Minister, I had suggested to appoint a chief but I was asked to continue because of the Lok Sabha elections,” Mr. Kamal Nath told reporters after meeting Ms. Gandhi.
Constant firefighting
For the interim Congress chief, it has been literally a firefighting exercise as her meeting with Mr. Nath comes a day after she met former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.
Mr. Hooda has been insisting on changing State chief Ashok Tanwar, who was appointed by former Congress president Rahul Gandhi five years ago. Indicating that he could even leave the party ahead of the Assembly election, Mr. Hooda had even organised a massive public rally in Rohtak on August 18 as a show of strength.
