Kamal Nath. File.
| Photo Credit: A.M. FARUQUI
Cracks in the Madhya Pradesh Congress have become more visible with leaders making mutually contradictory statements on projecting former Chief Minister Kamal Nath as the party’s face for the 2023 Assembly election.
On Wednesday, Mr. Nath — already in campaign mode travelling to various districts — said in Umariya that he could not stop any party worker from raising slogans calling him the Bhavi Mukhyamantri or the future Chief Minister.
“I cannot stop anyone from sloganeering but I am not in search of any post,” he said. He was responding to a statement by fellow Congress leader and former MP PCC president Arun Yadav, who had recently said that it would be decided by the MLAs after the elections.
Another leader, former Leader of Opposition Ajay Singh Yadav, echoed these views on Tuesday. “It is the tradition of the Congress that the MLAs elect their leader. No one says about themselves that they are the future Chief Minister. All I can say about myself is that I want to become a future MLA,” he said.
The term Bhavi Mukhyamantri was first used at the beginning of this year when the party put up posters calling Mr. Nath the future CM. In the days that followed, the term was also used by official spokespersons in communication with journalists.
As recently as Thursday, the Madhya Pradesh Congress’s Twitter handle posted a tweet saying, “Madhya Pradesh wants Kamal Nath” and its cover picture still says that “Kamal Nath government is arriving”.
It was the party’s MP in-charge J.P. Aggarwal who objected to the term. Two weeks ago, responding to a question on Mr. Aggarwal’s take on the issue, Mr. Nath himself had said that selection of Chief Minister involved a process and that was followed in every party, Congress being no exception.
However, it’s not just people within the Congress who have raised the Bhavi Mukhyamantri question. The public airing of such views has also given the BJP an opening. Its spokesperson Narendra Singh Saluja, who recently switched over to the BJP from the Congress, alleged that Mr. Nath’s response that he allows people to raise slogans while saying he isn’t interested in any post does not give a clear picture of his stance on the issue.
BJP steps in
Even Chief Minister Shivraj Singh and Home Minister Narottam Mishra have taken potshots at the former Chief Minister by highlighting the “infighting” and also questioning the underlying assumption that it was the Congress that would form the next government in Madhya Pradesh.
“The Congress first launched the Haath se Haath Jodo Abhiyaan ( join hands campaign). Now there is a campaign to get rid of Kamal Nath going on. Congress leaders are coming forward one after the other and if people are coming forward [speaking against Mr. Nath], who are behind them should also be looked into. Kamal Nath ji has become the self-proclaimed Chief Minister. Sut na Kapas Julahon mein lattham lattha [fighting for resources without having any],” said the CM who is locked in a question war with Mr. Nath.
Meanwhile, Mr. Nath has been receiving some support as well. Leader of Opposition in the MP Assembly, Govind Singh, said on Thursday that the party had decided that the Assembly elections “would be fought under the leadership” of Mr. Nath. The MLA-former minister duo of P.C. Sharma and Sajjan Singh Verma have thrown their weight behind Mr. Nath, with the latter even alleging that their was a conspiracy against Mr Nath.
This, however, has only added to the confusion and allowed the BJP to target the infighting in Congress.
“Senior leader of Congress party Sajjan Singh Verma ji is talking about conspiracy against Kamal Nath ji. Big leaders of the Congress who had established the Mughal Sultanate-like Congress in the State and Kamal Nath ji has taken control of that. A group of Congress is engaged in uprooting Mr. Nath. He [Mr. Nath] should clarify who is conspiring?” said Home Minister Narottam Mishra.
Sources say the party high command may step in if the controversy over the party’s face continues to escalate.