Rahul’s balancing act: Kamal Nath, Jyotiraditya Scindia at helm

New Delhi: Striking a balancing act and in a bid to contain factionalism, Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday appointed senior party leader Kamal Nath as president of its Madhya Pradesh unit and Jyotiraditya Scindia as campaign committee chief ahead of the state Assembly elections expected later this year. The party has decided to go into the polls without any CM face.

Another major potential aspirant for the top post, Mr Digvijaya Singh, told a television channel that he had “opted out” of the race. In a “please all” arrangement, both Mr Nath and Mr Scindia were given positions in the state unit while Mr Digvijaya Singh remains a general secretary of the party.

Interestingly, Mr Scindia had been named campaign committee chief ahead of the 2013 Assembly polls as well. Insiders claim Mr Scindia was being considered for the post of state unit chief for a long time but in the end it was nine-term Lok Sabha MP Kamal Nath who made the cut. After the announcement, Mr Nath told reporters that the “Congress will replace the Shivraj government in Madhya Pradesh... people are looking for an immediate change”. He added there was no factionalism or division among the state leaders and the party was united in the state. Skirting the all-important issue of a CM candidate, Mr Nath said a decision on that would be taken by the Congress president.

Besides the new state unit chief, the party named four new working presidents in a bid to give representation to all sides in the state unit. The working presidents are Bala Bachhan, Ramnivas Rawat, Jitu Patwari and Surender Chaudhary. Mr Patwari was also secretary in-charge of the AICC for the Gujarat assembly polls. Party sources said the appointments were a judicious mix of the young and the old.

While Mr Bachhan hails from the Neemad region, Mr Choudhury is from Bundelkhand area. Similarly, Mr Patwari hails from the Malwa region while Mr Rawat belongs to the Gwalior-Chambal area. Mr Nath himself hails from the Mahakoshal region, while Mr Scindia is from the Gwalior-Chambal region. Mr Bachhan and Mr Patwari are seen as Nath loyalists, while Mr Choudhury and Mr Rawat are seen to belong to the Scindia camp.

Incidentally, outgoing state party chief Arun Yadav and Congress Legislature Party leader Ajey Singh, who have been backed by former chief minister Digvijaya Singh, seemed to have been marginalised in the current rejig of the party. “I will not contest elections. I will work for strengthening the organisation. I am ready to work under the new PCC president”, Mr Yadav told reporters here.

In another organisational reshuffle, the party appointed Girish Chodankar as Pradesh Congress Committee chief for Goa, replacing Shantaram Naik, who had resigned a few days ago. Mr Naik had forwarded his resignation to the Congress president after the AICC plenary, saying as he had turned 70, he was making way for the younger generation.