Amid massive factionalism within Madhya Pradesh’s Congress unit off late, almost all the prominent party leaders met in Bhopal on Monday evening and announced to contest 2023 assembly polls under MPCC chief Kamal Nath. The party also devised strategy to prepare for assembly polls during the meet.
Meanwhile as rumoured, MPCC chief Nath, also the Leader of Opposition in state assembly, did not relinquish the post during the meeting. It was said that Nath could hand over the responsibility to someone else to focus on mission 2023.
Senior leader Dr Govind Singh, who in the past has expressed willingness to be handed over the post, had on Monday again wished to be given the responsibility.
Meanwhile all the leaders present in the meeting held at Nath’s residence agreed to contest the assembly polls in year 2023 under the leadership of Kamal Nath.
Jitu Patwari, the Congress media cell chairman said that such meetings will now take place twice a month. Shivraj government will be cornered on the ground level and for doing so, agitations on issues such as inflation, unemployment and others, will be staged from panchayat to state level, he said.
After a long time, all the senior party leaders including Kamal Nath, Digvijaya Singh, Ajay Singh, Arun Yadav, Suresh Pachauri, NP Prajapati, Kantilal Bhuria along with all the second rung leaders came under a common roof and discussed poll strategy.
Further, Nath had been showing signs of intensified efforts to bring party leaders on the same page after a spell of discord with several of them and was seen with his old adversary Arun Yadav in a temple on Sunday. Since 2018, when Yadav was unseated as MPCC chief, both the leaders were having cold relations and never were seen together.
After the meet, Yadav put the newly found bonhomie on display tweeting that Congress state unit will fight the assembly polls under Rahul Gandhi and Kamal Nath.
Former finance minister Tarun Bhanot said that Shivraj government is burdening commoners with inflation and the state is buried under four lakh crore loans, state’s fiscal health is shaky and public is dented with price rise in petrol, diesel and LPG every day, he said. The leaders decided to raise awareness among the public on issues including farmers, price rise, joblessness and others.
Earlier in the day, MPCC chief who had taken part in meeting of Youth Congress chaired by national head Srinivas BV in Bhopal, said he will be speaking to leaders regularly and he was meeting former ministers on Monday. Nath on the occasion urged young leaders to “shun the world of Facebook and Whastapp” saying they won’t be able to gain anything from the virtual world. He called on party youths to fight for the common man.
The BJP seemed unimpressed by the Congress show of unity. It was all about Kamal Nath getting his posts endorsed by other leaders, said BJP spokesperson Rajnish Agrawal. Nath was expected to relinquish post of opposition leader for any SC or ST candidate but nothing of this sort happened, added Agrawal.
Political experts are also curious to know how far the MPCC chief takes these fighting leaders along and how he plans to forge a combination between the old warhorses and GenNext leaders in the state.
Youth Congress (YC) national president Srinivas BV who was in Bhopal said that BJP and RSS were apprehensive of Gandhis which is why they engaged in malicious campaign against them. He reviewed progress of ‘Ek Booth Panch Youths’ campaign of the YC saying the youth wing will strengthen party’s grip on booth which will help in defeating the BJP.
YC national in-charge Krishna Allavaru said that YC will fight for justice for youths cheated in Vyapam exams.
