NEW DELHI: After the abysmal performance in Madhya Pradesh Lok Sabha elections, which saw the Congress tally of seats go down to zero out of 29, the state unit leadership of the Congress party is said to be under high command’s scanner. The poor performance has also disheartened the Congress rank and file in the state.
According to party insiders, the high command could also contemplate exploring the option of changing the state unit leadership in the coming time as it has failed to create a cohesive force in the organisation. Exemplifying the claims, it is said that the state unit president Jitu Patwari had negotiated hard to get the ticket for Akshay Kanti Bam who he wanted to contest for the Indore seat. But, to his dismay, the candidate left the party and joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) days before the elections which had left the grand old party red-faced in the state and also allowed BJP candidate to win the elections without any challenge.
A Congress leader said, “When that happened, Patwari was very stressed about it.”
Another Congress office bearer in the state said, “High command is unhappy with Jitu Patwari because of his non-serious approach towards the elections as well as for being lackadaisical during the election phase by not rising to the magnitude of the crisis. A lot of people defected from the Congress and went to the BJP without shaking the leadership. They were all okay with leaders leaving the party. Three ex-MLAs left the party, and half a dozen District Congress Committee (DCC) presidents and ex-DCC presidents left. And the leadership didn’t talk to the defecting members.”
The interesting factor, according to leaders, in the Patwari camp is that his close associate Pankaj Upadhyay (currently MLA MP assembly) had been aspiring to contest the Lok Sabha seat of Morena. However, when he was denied a ticket and was kept away from the candidature, according to party insiders, he had started working at cross purposes with the party. The insider added, “He (Pankaj) had started working against the Congress, and everything that he did against the party was in direct knowledge of Patwari.”
Despite the disappointing performance in the Lok Sabha elections, some leaders suggest that the change in the leadership may not be made as Jitu Patwari had little time to establish himself and understand the role.
In addition to that, the two veterans, Kamal Nath and Digvijay Singh, who were already distanced by Rahul Gandhi from the power centre of the party (because of their inability to win assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh) could not ensure a victory in their respective seats. This gave rise to a perception that their political future was on the brink of extinction. Another Congress leader said, “Kamal Nath’s son could have won the seat. We were expecting a win at least from his bastion Chindwara. Kamal Nath now cannot, in any way, come closer to Rahul Gandhi. The same applies to Digvijay Singh. But now they have proved that Madhya Pradesh needs serious changes which should not include them. They were big leaders. Big leaders make the party win several seats. But they couldn’t even win theirs.”