Bhopal: It isn’t usually {that a} Congress chief anoints himself the celebration’s chief ministerial candidate a lot earlier than the meeting elections, and the excessive command shouldn’t be even offended by the appropriation of its authority, in a state which will play a vital function in arresting its shrinking nationwide footprint.
With Madhya Pradesh scheduled to carry meeting elections later this yr, septuagenarian Kamal Nath (76) faces nearly no problem to his management in a state the place the Congress is infamous for factionalism. The in-fighting was so unhealthy a number of years in the past, that the state’s Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) had the doubtful distinction of getting totally different spokespeople for various celebration leaders.
Now, social media platforms of the state Congress unit routinely describe Nath as “future CM’’ and so do most of the posters that come up within the state once in a while. Final yr, a call was made at a casual assembly held on the PCC workplace in Bhopal to challenge Nath because the “CM face” — the choice is but to be sanctioned the excessive command, mentioned sources in MP Congress.
After 9 Lok Sabha victories from the household stronghold of Chhindwara, and a short-lived stint as Chief Minister between December 2018 and March 2020, Nath has established himself because the topmost Congress chief in MP.
The one different chief who comes near him in seniority is former CM Digvijaya Singh.
Scion of the erstwhile royal household of Gwalior, Jyotiraditya Scindia — who was a prime contender for the CM’s publish forward of the 2018 meeting elections — is now a minister within the Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Celebration (BJP) authorities on the Centre. In March 2020, Scindia pulled down the 15-month-old Kamal Nath administration after defecting to the BJP with 22 Congress MLAs, all of whom have been his ardent supporters.
Underlining that Kamal Nath is a “senior chief”, a former state PCC chief instructed ThePrint that Nath’s present place as PCC chief offers him the “edge” within the race amongst Congress leaders to clutch the chief minister’s chair.
“He (Kamal Nath) takes all necessary selections. As issues stand right now, now we have to work underneath his management as a result of he enjoys the excessive command’s confidence and now we have been given the impression that he will likely be our chief. We’ve all determined to work collectively as a result of our agenda is to get again to energy. Different points might be sorted out later,’’ mentioned the Congress chief, who didn’t want to be named.
Apparently, Congress basic secretary in-charge of MP, J.P. Agarwal, mentioned final month that the celebration was but to finalise its CM face within the state.
“There’s a process that the Congress celebration has been following for years. The process hasn’t even began. As soon as tickets are distributed and the election is fought, it should depend upon what the celebration (nationwide) president, govt and native leaders assume at the moment,’’ Agarwal had instructed the media, whereas placing Nath and Digvijaya Singh on par.
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Kamal Nath ‘supreme Congress authority in MP’
The restructured PCC group is stuffed with Nath’s supporters. Whereas naming Nath as PCC chief in 2018, the All India Congress Committee (AICC) named 4 working PCC presidents. 5 years later, Nath enjoys a free hand in accordance with celebration insiders, provided that the 4 working presidents at the moment are members of the political affairs committee headed by Nath.
The committee additionally includes his son Nakul Nath, Digvijaya Singh, chief of opposition within the MP meeting Govind Singh, and former union ministers Kantilal Bhuria, Suresh Pachouri and Arun Yadav, amongst others.
Following a murmur of protest over a few of the names doing the rounds for prime celebration posts on the district degree, Agarwal had maintained final month that the listing was not closing.
It’s well-known in political circles that Nath has all the time been near the Nehru-Gandhi household and is usually known as upon to play the celebration’s troubleshooter in occasions of crises in different states.
“I used to be with him when Sonia Gandhi known as him to turn into Congress president, however he refused,’’ claimed a state celebration chief. “He has his eyes on MP. He felt harm over the best way his authorities collapsed as a result of it sullied his picture as a political supervisor. He’s adamant and can go to any extent to type a authorities once more,’’ the chief mentioned, including that Nath has on a number of events declared his intention to contest meeting polls one final time.
By the way, the identical argument had been given by the Kamal Nath camp within the run-up to the 2018 meeting polls, when he was nearing 72.
“Nath is a supreme Congress authority in MP and he has conditioned himself to not look elsewhere however the state. He has been holding conferences and mingling with employees. Given his seniority the excessive command won’t ask him to elucidate the posters declaring him the long run CM,” mentioned political commentator Girija Shankar.
He, nevertheless, added, “Authority like this may be dangerous to the celebration as a result of individuals begin getting suffocated and may’t muster the braveness to talk out.”
“Nath might have fought and received many elections, however he lacks hands-on expertise of native equations and circumstances to oversee a complete election. If he depends on another person’s expertise he won’t get the credit score (for victory),” Shankar mentioned.
Congress, BJP IT cells lock horns
With elections approaching, the MP Congress has stepped up its presence on social media. From webcasting celebration occasions and Nath’s speeches, to rebutting BJP leaders’ feedback and posting memes and documentaries to criticise the Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led BJP authorities within the state, the celebration has been on the offensive.
Nath’s media coordinator Piyush Babele claimed the celebration has created hundreds of WhatsApp teams to make sure its viewpoint and leaders’ speeches attain even villages, to make sure a direct channel of communication. For this, the celebration selected younger and energetic employees who have been lively on social media and appointed them at district and block ranges, he mentioned.
“Earlier than letting them (employees) in, their social media exercise of the final six months is vetted to see if they’ve posted any objectionable content material,” Babele additionally instructed ThePrint.
The MP Congress IT cell creates brief movies by digging up outdated info and sharing them utilizing official handles to rebut claims and allegations levelled in opposition to the celebration by CM Chouhan or vocal BJP ministers like Narottam Mishra and Vishwas Sarang — a “tit for tat” transfer, mentioned Babele.
At 1.1 million, the Congress claims its state unit has extra followers on Twitter than the Madhya Pradesh BJP. Nonetheless, the state BJP’s official deal with additionally has as many followers. Babele claimed the celebration’s MP unit excels all state Congress items relating to social media presence.
In keeping with an unbiased Bhopal-based social media watcher, the MP Congress IT cell discovered learn how to time its tweets to get them to development. Cadres repeatedly change their show footage to go well with the present narrative, mentioned the media watcher.
Nonetheless, Narendra Saluja, who was Nath’s media coordinator until late final yr and is now a state BJP spokesperson, claimed the “aura round Nath is gone”.
“Everybody was once in awe of him in 2018 and thought of him a administration guru, however he failed to avoid wasting his personal authorities. Having labored with him in the previous few years, state leaders and employees have come to know of his temperament up shut,” mentioned Saluja.
Claiming that defections from the MP Congress didn’t cease with the exit of Scindia and his supporters, and extra adopted go well with, Saluja claimed that this was a sign that celebration employees didn’t belief Kamal Nath.
A BJP chief, who was with the Congress until three years in the past, insisted that the opposition celebration is lively solely nearly, not on the bottom. “They might have created a notion to spice up the morale of their cadres however there’s little on the bottom. It neither has the infrastructure, nor employees.”
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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