The party leaders are not aligned the way they should be, but hope to win 8 LS seats.
The Congress party in Madhya Pradesh is going through some administrative glitches which has created a hurdle for party leaders to create a unified ecosystem.
Earlier, in a meeting conducted for legislative Assembly heads, 100 out of 230 Assembly in-charges were present. The reason for is said to be “miscommunication”. A Congress leader said, “It is not that the leaders had refused to attend the meeting but there was gross miscommunication. Our administrative in-charge is Rajiv Singh and he said that he had delegated the job to a subordinate who couldn’t do it. How will the party work if there is such a mistake at the top level?”
A leader close to the top leadership said, “The party leaders are not aligned the way they should be. There are not much political activities as much as there should be. We haven’t formed the new Pradesh executive body yet so the clear allocation of responsibilities have not been done yet. Hence it is bound to happen.”
Blaming non-cooperation by some senior members, another senior leader said, “Kamal Nath hasn’t attended any meeting after the new state president was announced. Yet Digvijaya Singh is seen to have softened up a bit towards the proceedings led by Jitu Patwari. There are less political activities from the topmost senior leaders. The cadre as a whole is not working the way it should be.”
He added, “But there is also a silver lining, and that is Jitu Patwari has increasingly tried to be relevant and more accommodative of all the leaders. There was this perception before, that he is arrogant and he may not connect with the cadre smoothly but he has shunned that image. And also looks like he is performing well.”
Moreover, there is a wave of rumours of Kamal Nath joining BJP which has kept every party leader on tenterhooks. A leader close to Nath said, “Since there has been so much mudslinging against Kamal Nath even within the Congress, the rumours of him leaving the party have not caused any serious alarm. But if the buzz is true, such a big leader leaving the party will certainly create a nightmare for the Congress in the state. He has also been sad about a few things lately. First Rahul Gandhi did not talk to him respectfully after he lost the elections. Second, a huge chunk of the cadre has been against him for a long time as they believe it was Nath who was responsible for the loss in MP elections.”
The party had earlier conducted an election committee meeting where, the party insiders indicate, the grand old party has reckoned the data of the recent Assembly elections and made an assessment over the potential strategy of the party for the Lok Sabha elections.
According to party insiders, there are 5 Lok Sabha segments where the Congress party has received more votes than the BJP (by aggregating the votes of Assembly seats part of the 5 Lok Sabha segments). Also, there are around 3 more LS seats where the vote share is neck and neck between the two national parties (though less than the BJP). A party insider said, “By and large, the discussion was on how to pocket these 8 seats at least. Moreover, if we win the seats in MP it will directly reduce BJP’s overall seats by 8. And if we plan like this in every state then it would be difficult for the saffron party to come back to power once again.”