New Delhi: Supporters of Kamal Nath had told him that he should take up the charge of Madhya Pradesh Congress only if he got an assurance from the party high command that he would be made Chief Minister if they won the state. It was only after getting this assurance from party president Rahul Gandhi that Kamal Nath took over as Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) president of MP on 26 April 2018, just seven months before the Assembly elections held on 28 November. He has now been made Chief Minister of the state.
Congress party sources said that the other claimant to the CM’s chair, Jyotiraditya Scindia, the MP from Guna, had the support of more than 50 of the 114 newly elected MLAs. But Scindia lost the race since an assurance had already been given to Kamal Nath and also because former CM Digvijaya Singh was supporting Nath.
“We all were aware that Kamal Nath’s supporters were projecting him as the CM during the run-up to the elections, but when the results came, the MLAs supporting Scindia started the clamour that Scindia should be made CM. It was a natural development and not a planned one”, said a party source, who has been present in the Congress office in Bhopal since result day.
In the run-up to the elections, the supporters of Kamal Nath and Digvijaya Singh got the maximum number of tickets. However, the Congress won on 26 seats just from Scindia’s stronghold, the Gwalior-Chambal region, which sends 34 MLAs to the Assembly.
Bhopal based Congress spokesperson Pankaj Chaturvedi denied that there was any kind of tussle between the two leaders for the CM’s chair.
“On Thursday (when both Scindia and Kamal Nath were summoned to Delhi by Rahul Gandhi after it emerged that Scindia had got enough MLAs to support his CM claim), they only met Rahulji for 10 minutes and it was a courtesy call and it was not related to who would be the CM. Since Rahulji was also dealing with the issue of Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan on the same day, a wrong picture emerged that the three (Kamal Nath, Scindia and Rahul) were involved in a long discussion over who would be the CM”, he claimed.
However, other Bhopal based party sources said that Scindia was more popular of the two, that his rallies had seen better attendance and that his presence was demanded by more candidates during the campaign. This showed that if Rahul had to go just by popularity, Scindia should have been the choice as CM.
“Kamal Nath had many advantages even before campaigning started. It was he who funded the campaigning, secondly and very importantly Digvijaya Singh was supporting him, thirdly many leaders who are of Scindia’s age did not want him to become CM, and fourthly the media management of Kamal Nath among Delhi based media houses helped him in this close race. A perception was created that since the Congress had a wafer thin majority so the party needed someone like Kamal Nath who is known for his networking skills. However, even Scindia is not an amateur and he too has a strong network, but that was overshadowed by the media narrative that was played out in Delhi,” a Delhi based party source said.
Gwalior based Keshav Pandey, who is a close confidant of Scindia, said that Congress workers were preparing for the 2019 general elections. “Scindiaji is very dynamic and now his main focus is on getting the maximum number of seats in the Lok Sabha elections. He has age on his side and his popularity among the youth and old is high. We are sure that the party has big plans for him,” he said.