Cong starts fixing accountability; Kamal Nath, Baghel not in leadership roles, young faces take charge

Smarting from the defeat in the recent Assembly elections, Congress on Saturday initiated the exercise of fixing responsibility by replacing veteran Kamal Nath with a younger face as state president in Madhya Pradesh and not assigning legislature party leadership to former Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel in Chhattisgarh.

The exercise in both the states, where the leaders and workers felt that the party snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, months ahead of Lok Sabha polls signalled generation change and a subtle balancing of caste combination by bringing in backward class and tribal leaders to the top. The actions came following review meetings in Delhi earlier this month.

All eyes are now on Rajasthan as to whether Congress will retain Ashok Gehlot in a leadership role or whether it would bring in Sachin Pilot in a prominent role in the state though he appears to be more to have a national role at the moment. Leaders earlier indicated Congress performed better than expected in Rajasthan but the leadership has not shown its cards yet.

Party president Mallikarjun Kharge appointed Jitu Patwari (50), an OBC leader who lost the polls, as Madhya Pradesh Congress president in place of 77-year-old Kamal Nath, who is accused of running the party affairs and election campaign in the state at his whims and fancies.

Umang Singhar, a four-time MLA and well-known tribal leader, was chosen as Congress Legislature Party leader and will become the Leader of Opposition. Hemant Katare, a 38-year-old leader, has been named as Deputy Leader in the Assembly.

In Chhattisgarh, Congress central leadership overlooked Baghel, under whom the party fought the election, and chose veteran Charan Das Mahant (69), an OBC leader, as the legislature party leader.

At the same time, the party chose to retain Deepak Baij (42), a Lok Sabha MP who lost the Assembly election, as the state party chief. The party felt that he was appointed only in July this year and it would be unjust to remove him as he did not have enough time to bring the divided house in order.

All the new appointees, barring Mahant, are 50 or below 50 while the party leadership has carefully chosen the names to ensure an OBC-tribal combination to steer the party in organisation and legislature.

Kamal Nath was the face of the Congress campaign in MP and was unwilling to quit despite the central leadership indicating that it would be better if he offered to do so. As he refused to do so, the leadership went ahead with naming his successor.

The choice of leaders in Madhya Pradesh is also a message to another veteran Digvijaya Singh who was hoping to catapult his son Jaivardhan Singh’s political career. Both Kamal Nath and Digvijaya were running the show in the state and their fight for supremacy, party leaders said, had a hand in Congress’ poor show in the state.

In Chhattisgarh, Mahant benefited from the absence of T S Singhdeo and Tamradhwaj Sahu in the Assembly as they lost the polls. The infighting in the state unit with Baghel on one side and Singhdeo on the other as well as excessive focus on rural issues and corruption charges among others were cited as the reasons for the defeat.