Congress in MP Sets Up ‘Coordination’ Committee After Months of Internal Tussle

Bhopal: The All India Congress Committee (AICC) has formed a co-ordination committee including all the ‘power centres’ in Madhya Pradesh – a move to shed off growing signs of factionalism within the ruling party in the state.

Similar co-ordination committees have been formed in three other states – Punjab, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh and union territory of Puducherry. Separate committees have been formed in these states to have better co-ordination between the party and state governments in these states.

The committee in MP, which has been formed for the “proper implementation of election manifesto” comprises of AICC general secretary of the state Deepak Babria, chief minister Kamal Nath, senior leader Arjun Modhwadia and former Maharashtra CM Prithviraj Chavan.

Besides the former two leaders, the committee also includes former chief minister Digvijaya Singh, Meenakshi Natrajan, a close aide of Rahul Gandhi and sulking leaders like Jyotiraditya Scindia and former state head Arun Yadav and cabinet minister Jitu Patwari.

Yadav had been away from party affairs soon after he was shown the door in May 2018 when Kamal Nath was drafted into Madhya Pradesh politics by the party high command. A loss in Lok Sabha polls also did not help his cause either.

Though the faction ridden Congress party in Madhya Pradesh had took on the mighty BJP in the 2018 Assembly polls, things were back to square one soon after the party assumed power.

The party handpicked veteran Kamal Nath as chief minister, ignoring claims from Jyotiraditya Scindia, the scion of Gwalior royal family. Scindia was quick to disconnect himself from party

affairs making public his disappointment and dissent on so many occasions.

Several other ministers had also expressed anguish against senior leader Digvijaya Singh who was dubbed as the ‘power centre’ of the incumbent government. However, last year, he had taken a pot shot on his own government over pre-poll promises of cow conservation by posting pictures of stray cows sitting in the middle of the highway.

With several other states due for assembly polls in near future, it seems the Congress has decided to pull up socks in states where it already has assumed power to showcase it’s abilities.