NEW DELHI: Madhya Pradesh Congress president Jitu Patwari is criticised by the senior leaders of the party as they deem him to be incompetent.
Madhya Pradesh state unit president of Congress, Jitu Patwari is facing criticism from the party leaders and high command over the electoral drubbing in the recent Lok Sabha elections and inability to manage the cadre.
Although there are claims that Patwari will continue on his position, party insiders suggest that the high command has not approved the executive body (of which the names were listed and sent by Patwari) of Madhya Pradesh cadre, indicating that Patwari might be replaced, after which a new executive body would be approved.
A source privy to the developments said, “The approval of the list has been put on hold. Another thing that has questioned his credibility is not speaking against the nursing scam which has come out in the open. The scam shows alleged involvement of BJP minister Vishvas Sarang but the issue has not been picked up by Patwari because of the close relationship he shares with him. Such a knowledge has come across to Rahul Gandhi, due to which he is not happy with him. Even Patwari’s close aide was seen enjoying with the minister. This is the reason he might get replaced.”
According to party insiders, in a meeting held over MP recently, case was presented which pointed to the fact that most of the political and administrative shortcomings of the party unit were dealt with incompetently by the Congress leadership in the state. And despite given the role of party chief, Patwari was unable to manage and channelise the human resources.
It is being said that Patwari had complained to Congress high command about the lack of support from two senior leaders, Digvijay Singh and Kamal Nath. However, the top two leaders, KC Venugopal and Mallikarjun Kharge had castigated his pointing of fingers towards the two leaders (Nath and Singh) and said that he had powers enough to take decisions. A party leader said, “This is a simple matter, he is given the command of the state cadre and he is complaining about others of impeding the organisational functioning. What kind of a leader is he? He is someone who has the full power over others, he can make things happen. He can increase the utility of a leader and decrease it too. Yet, he is unable to manage the party.”
There are other leaders who say that the two bigwigs, Kamal Nath and Digvijay Singh, had the responsibility of winning their respective seats of Rajgarh and Chindwara. The two were already weak on their electoral turf and therefore could not have helped Patwari in different political matters.
A political observer said, “The two big leaders have held the top posts in the state. And they have been into politics for decades. They will always pursue their own growth and ascension. They have their own functional network which may have caused hurdles in Jitu Patwari’s political ventures. But the leader is one who navigates through problems, offers hope and also takes appropriate decisions. And that’s been missing from him.”