Bhopal: Internal-squabbling engulfs Congress, CM to be decided after win, says Arun Yadav

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The state Congress leaders have suddenly started issuing conflicting statements which signal the onset of a storm in the party before the assembly elections.

The MP Congress Committee is projecting Kamal Nath as the next chief minister, but former PCC chief Arun Yadav was against it.

Chief ministerial candidate will be decided only after the party comes to power, Yadav said on Friday.

The members of the Congress Legislative Party elect its leader at a meeting after winning the polls, he said, adding that Kamal Nath is the MPCC president, and the party is contesting the elections under his leadership.

Nevertheless, declaration of the name of chief minister is not made in advance, so there is no face for the post right now, he said.

On the one hand, it is believed that Nath will be the chief minister’s face of the party. On the other hand, Yadav’s statement makes it clear that the party leaders are not in accord with one another in this regard.

Former minister Jitu Patwari, too, has opened a front. He told reporters that the then president of the Congress Rahul Gandhi had appointed him as working president of the party’s state unit. Patwari said he and Nath had been appointed together, and since nobody has removed him from the post, he is still holding it.

Patwari’s statement that one person cannot remain on a particular post for more than five years has kicked up a fresh controversy.

He also said that when he would complete five years on the post, he would put in his papers.

Nath is completing five years as MPCC president on May 1 this year. Therefore, Patwari’s statement seems to be a veiled criticism of Nath.

On the contrary, Congress’s vice-president Prakash Jain has denied Patwari’s being the executive president. According to Jain, Nath is MPCC president and he has already announced his team.