Kamal Nath Out, Jitu Patwari In As Congress' Madhya Pradesh Chief
What was seen as something imminent in the political circles, Congress has removed former chief minister and senior leader Kamal Nath as the state president of Madhya Pradesh after the poor performance in the state assembly elections recently. In a communication shared to the media by Congress’ general secretary in charge of organizational affairs KC Venugopal said the Congress President has appointed Jitu Patwari as the President of Madhya Pradesh Congress Committee, with immediate effect.
On a single line note, the party said it appreciates the contributions of outgoing PCC President Kamal Nath.
Congress President, according to the communication, has also approved the proposal of the appointment of Umang Singhar, as the Congress Legislative Party Leader in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly and Hemant Katare as the Deputy Leader.
BJP, the party that was facing an anti-incumbency of almost 18 years emerged victorious after bagging more than two times seats than the grand old party then led by Kamal Nath.
BJP has 163, increase of 54 than the previous assembly, and Congress was only able to manage 66 seats, 48 less than the previous election in 2018.
Jitu Patwari, who is from the Malwa Nimar region, is a former minister in Kamal Nath government that fell due to the defection of Jyotiraditya Scindia and many Congress legislators in March 2020.
The new PCC president belongs to the same region from where CM Mohan Yadav belongs and perceived as a youth leader belonging to the OBC community.
Mr Patwari is reportedly close to Rahul Gandhi and also from a farmer community. By appointing Patwari and Umang Singhar in two important posts in Madhya Pradesh, Congress is expecting to bring in youth energy in the critical state ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. One of the analysis from the experts after the drubbing of Congress in the recent elections in the state was that of the “older leadership” of the party, led by Kamal Nath and Digvijaya Singh. Madhya Pradesh has a total of 29 Lok Sabha seats and 28 are currently held by BJP.
