New Delhi: In a bid to avoid factionalism within the party, the Congress on Tuesday named Digvijay Singh as the coordination committee chief of Madhya Pradesh. Earlier, the Congress had appointed Jyotiraditya Scindia as campaign committee chief and Kamal Nath as MPCC president. Suresh Pachauri has been named as election planning committee chief.
In a bid to strike a balance between several factions, the party had also appointed four new working presidents in a bid to give representation to all in the state unit. The working presidents include Bala Bachhan, Ramnivas Rawat, Jitu Patwari and Surender Chaudhary.
Mr Patwari was also secretary in-charge of AICC for Gujarat Assembly elections. According to party sources, the appointments are a judicious mix of the young and the old. While, Mr Bachhan hails from Neemad region, Mr Choudhury is from Bundelkhand area. Similarly, Mr Patwari hails from Malwa region and Mr Rawat belonged to Gwalior-Chambal area. Mr Nath himself is from Mahakoshal region, while Mr Scindia is from Gwalior-Chambal region. While Mr Bachhan and Mr Patwari are considered Mr Nath’s loyalists, Mr Choudhury and Mr Rawat are believed to belong to Mr Scindia’s camp. Incidentally, the outgoing state party president Arun Yadav and Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Ajay Singh, who have been backed by former chief minister Digvijay Singh, seemed to have been marginalised in the current rejig of the party.
Apart from heading the coordination committee, Digvijay Singh also remains the general secretary in the AICC. Mr Singh was on a six-month-long Narmada yatra in which he had completely shut himself off for a period of six months. After coming back, Mr Singh also plans to tour the entire Madhya Pradesh as part of a political yatra.
