What has brought Congress leadership together in MP after so many years?
Political circles were set abuzz in Bhopal when the factionalism-plagued Congress, which has been out of power in Madhya Pradesh for 13 years, put up a united show during an agitation planned to highlight 13 years of "misrule" by the BJP.
The agitation — held last week in Bhopal during the ongoing Budget session of the Assembly — had top Congress leaders Digvijaya Singh, Kamal Nath, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Kantilal Bhuria, Arun Yadav and Suresh Pachauri share the dais after almost three years.
In an obvious sign that the party was gearing up for the Assembly polls in 2018, a day after the agitation on February 22, the Congress also announced Ajay Singh as the leader of the Opposition.
What has brought the Congress leadership together in MP after so many years? It’s simply a question of survival for the party that would have been out of power for 15 years at the time of the next Assembly elections in 2018. Party sources also point out to the insistence by Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi who prevailed over the top leadership to put up a united show during the agitation in Bhopal.
There is a lot of lost ground the party has to cover in case it wants to have a shot at power in 2018, and this would be impossible without all the Congress leaders working together. Someone who will vote for the first time in MP in 2018 would have been three years old when the last Congress government ruled the state!
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| Party sources also point out to the insistence by Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi who prevailed over the top leadership to put up a united show during the agitation in Bhopal. |
After the successful agitation in Bhopal, what next for the Congress in the state? The Congress needs a prominent face, and, more importantly, someone with strong campaign skills to take on Shivraj Singh Chouhan whose popularity across the state is immense. There is talk of a change of guard at the PCC after the UP elections.
There is a realignment of forces of the Kamal Nath and Jyotiraditya Scindia camps in Madhya Pradesh which was obvious even on the day of the protest in Bhopal. One of them is expected to lead the Congress in the next Assembly elections.
The real test of unity would be the scenario in the Congress after the appointment of the new PCC chief. In case the appointment alienates top leaders, it would suggest that unity in the MP unit of the Congress is a chimera. The appointment of Ajay Singh — a six-term MLA and son of veteran Congressman, late Arjun Singh — as leader of Opposition suggests that the Congress leadership accorded importance to inner party democracy.
Ajay Singh, besides putting up a good performance as leader of Opposition in the 13th Vidhan Sabha (the previous term) was the most popular choice of MLAs — as taken note of by Lalit Maken, the central observer for deciding the leader of Opposition.
While Singh’s task is cut out before 2018 — to take on the BJP government in the House where the Congress has 56 members in the 230-member assembly — the BJP is already attempting to paint his elevation to the post as a backstabbing of tribal and Brahmin communities’ interests, both of which had their own candidates for the post.
It would be interesting to see how the BJP reacts to the appointment considering that it has a Thakur, Nandkumar Singh Chouhan, as its state unit chief.
(Courtesy of Mail Today.)
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