‘Jai-Veeru’ vs ‘Mama’: Congress relies on Kamal-Divijaya duo to beat BJP in Madhya Pradesh

Recently, in the middle of an interview, Madhya Pradesh Congress chief Kamal Nath was asked if his ties with the party heavyweight Digvijaya Singh had strained. Nath got up in a huff as if walking out of the room. The interviewer, the state editor of a prominent Hindi daily from Bhopal, thought the query had upset Nath. However, within 30 seconds, Nath was back, ushering in Singh and asking him to join the interview. The two former chief ministers of Madhya Pradesh laughed and laughed loudly when the interviewer expressed his apprehensions. “We go back for almost five decades,” Nath said. “We are Jai and Veeru of Madhya Pradesh Congress”, added Singh, obviously referring to the immortalised screen characters of the Bollywood blockbuster 'Sholay' essayed by Amitabh Bachchan and Dharmendra respectively.

The destiny of the Congress in poll-bound Madhya Pradesh is indeed in the hands of Kamal- Digvijaya ‘jodi’ (pair). Together, they are micromanaging the entire election from drawing up strategy, selection of candidates and campaigning to firefighting and resource mobilization. In contrast to the BJP, which is relying heavily on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's oratory skills, Home Minister Amit Shah's election management and the presence of the three union ministers in the fray, the Congress is fighting on the strength of the state leadership and the party candidates. The Congress also does not have the organisational or institutional support on the lines of the RSS and allied organisations, such as the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Bajrang Dal, and Vanvasi Kalyan Parishad, which have religious and cultural roots in society.

For the last six months, Nath and Singh have been working in close tandem to negotiate various challenges facing the Madhya Pradesh Congress. Digvijaya volunteered to look after 66 assembly seats of the state where the Congress fared poorly in the past. He is confident that if the Congress manages to win half of these 66 seats, the party will cross the 140-150 mark in the 230-member state assembly. While this may be a bit wishful, Singh’s role in crisis management has been a big plus for Nath. Take for example the disquiet over Bhopal (North) constituency, where an ailing Arif Aqueel, a former state minister, dramatically named his son Aatif as his political successor. Aqueel's younger brother Aamir, who had been managing and nursing the constituency, had also been a claimant. Singh paid several visits to Aqueel's family to present a united face. Similarly, in Jabalpur, Singh brought peace among warring local factions. In a nutshell, while Nath, the chief ministerial face of the party, remains a stickler for rules, norms and discipline, Singh, who knows Madhya Pradesh politics like the back of his palm, does the nitty gritty of cajoling and persuading. A lot of post-poll promises regarding nominations in the state boards and corporations are being doled out by him as a prize for settlement and cooperation.

Interestingly, the Congress high command - AICC chief Mallikarjun Kharge as well as Sonia, Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi – have given near autonomy or a free hand to Nath-Singh combine as long as they can deliver the state to the grand old party. Nath has been using his rapport with Priyanka Gandhi to bring her as a campaigner in the state. Priyanka has been trying to strike an emotional bond with the state's tribal voters and the Dalits, reminding them about Indira Gandhi. Rahul, on the other hand, has been harping on the theme of caste census and reservations, a key plank in Madhya Pradesh, where the other backward classes have been siding with the BJP. Even one or two per cent shift away from the BJP has the potential to bring a pro-Congress wave.

A closer scrutiny reveals that following the exit and defection of Jyotiraditya Scindia in March 2020, the Congress has emerged stronger as factionalism has been on the decline. The state party unit had traditionally been divided among various powerful regional satraps, such as Arjun Singh, Scindias, Shukla brothers, Singh-Nath and others. The death of stalwarts like Shukla brothers (V C Shukla and Shyama Charan Shukla), Arjun Singh, Subhash Yadav and Jamuna Devi resulted in creating a big void that was quickly and smartly filled by the Nath-Singh combine. The pact between the duo dates back to 1993 when Singh emerged as a dark horse beating S C Shukla in the chief ministerial contest. Nath, a minister in the P V Narasimha Rao cabinet, had thrown his lot with Singh. In 2018, when Rahul Gandhi was considering crowning Jyotiraditya Scindia as a young face in Madhya Pradesh, Singh tilted the scales in favour of Nath. A disillusioned Scindia defected, but Nath-Singh promised to Gandhis to bring back Madhya Pradesh to the Congress and erase the Scindia factor in the state politics. Would a Congress victory on December 3, 2023, prove Nath-Singh jodi right? Only time will tell, but until then, it's a free run for Jai and Veeru of Madhya Pradesh politics.

(The author is a senior journalist and a visiting fellow with the Delhi-based think tank Observer Research Foundation)