Congress trusts senior leaders for revival

Kamal Nath was the Congress’ key strategist in the Assembly polls held after the 2002 Godhra riots when Narendra Modi was chief minister. His name is doing the rounds as a possible party chief in Madhya Pradesh.

Ghulam Nabi Azad, Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha and a former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister, is the minority face of the Congress.

He was involved in the seat-sharing talks with the DMK for the recent Assembly polls in Tamil Nadu, and one of the key players involved in the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh.

The Congress cannot afford to lose Punjab, where the AAP has become a major hurdle in the its attempts to defeat the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal-BJP combine which is facing a strong anti-incumbency wave.

Mr Nath has to ensure the party’s victory in Punjab on one hand and to contain the growing dissension in the Haryana Congress, that came to fore in the Rajya Sabha polls on Saturday, in which its 14 votes were declared invalid and thus helped the BJP-backed heavyweight candidate.

The challenge before Mr Azad is more serious. It will be interesting to see how he can revive the Congress’ winning brahmin-dalit-Muslim combine in UP in less than eight months.

Sunday’s appointments is a clear indicator that Mrs Sonia Gandhi doesn’t want to rely completely on poll strategist Prashant Kishor, engaged by the party for the Punjab and Uttar Pradesh polls, but she is depending on Mr Azad and Mr Nath to revive its fighting spirit, ensure unity and take the correct call on poll strategy.

Madhusudan Mistry, who was earlier looking after Uttar Pradesh, will be the new general secretary in charge of the central election committee, while Dr Shakeel Ahmed, in-charge of Punjab and Haryana, has been relieved of this charge.