NEW DELHI: The party insiders said that the secretaries and general secretaries in the state have not been appointed yet. Every district has an incharge, who has kept the administrative momentum of the party high.
The Congress party in Madhya Pradesh, which went for Lok Sabha elections without the formation of executive body, has devolved the ongoing election responsibilities to key leaders headed by the state President Jitu Patwari. Leaders in the party say that a compact team of active functionaries are working to address the current needs of the elections.
Moreover, Jitu Patwari has been attending 3 assembly constituencies everyday to meet the people and leaders to mobilise the cadre and empower the street politics of the party. A Congress leader said, “We have a new media team, new media department, other departments have also been constituted but yes Pradesh secretaries and Pradesh general secretaries have not been appointed. Moreover, every district has district incharge, which has kept the administrative momentum of the party high.”
However, according to leaders, there is a perception created by the saffron camp that the grand old party is witnessing exodus of leaders impeding the momentum of the party. To counter that, Patwari had instructed his team to pen down the names of the leaders, who have left the party to reach the exact numbers. Thereby, according to the party’s calculation, there were less than 4,000 leaders in the state who had left the party. A senior leader in Congress said, “The list was made against the saffron camp’s claims that lakhs of people have left the Congress which was not true.”
Besides, the Congress party is trying to build a cadre with fresh faces and therefore the state president is heard to have said that he is not concerned about the party leaders leaving the Congress. A leader said, “He is waiting for weak and insincere people towards party to leave, so that he can give those people positions who are firm on the ideology. The executive body will then be made post Lok Sabha elections.”
Congress spokesperson in the state Mithun Singh Ahirwar told The Sunday Guardian, “There is an ex minister Prahlad Patel and he accepted that Modi has made two categories of dustbins, wet garbage and dry garbage. So they have accepted whatever is coming from Congress to them. The leaders in BJP are also angry. They have to accept nothing but waste. Recently a mayor in Chhindwara, who was close to Kamal Nath, had joined BJP and within 15 days he came back. On the voting day of Chhindwara, he released a video in favour of Kamal Nath and said that he wants to come back to Congress.”
A political analyst based in Madhya Pradesh said, “The new leadership model that the Congress state’s top leadership is trying to build can only flourish if there is consistency in the efforts and also if the political events from panchayat elections to other political battles are pursued religiously. Right now the two experienced players in MP like Kamal Nath and Digvijay Singh are not much involved in the designing of Congress state’s organisational policy. Therefore, they need more and more coordination and trust in leadership that will only come with better decisions following better electoral results in local elections and all impending elections.”