Bhopal: Digvijaya Singh, after serving as Chief Minister for ten years and Congress national general secretary for fifteen years, has turned irrelevant in political arena. With Singh not figuring in Congress working committee (CWC), a message has gone that his position within the party has become weak.
The assembly polls in Madhya Pradesh are near and Singh losing clout in the party has raised concerns amongst his followers, who are aspiring for election ticket. Singh is known as very powerful leader in Congress. The graph of Singh’s clout started going southwards after Goa assembly polls result.
In these polls held in March, 2017, Congress got 17 and BJP 13 out of 40 seats. Singh was in charge of Congress for assembly polls in Goa. Singh, on behalf of Congress, did not claim to form government, which allowed Union minister Nitin Gadkari, form the government by pulling strings.
Goa Congress unit had complained about Singh to then Congress president Sonia Gandhi. Singh, being held accountable for missing chance to form the government, was removed from the in-chargeship of Goa and Karnataka, where assembly poll preparations were on.
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According to sources in Congress, Congress president Rahul Gandhi was annoyed with Singh over Goa episode. Singh had also stopped discussing with senior leaders about the affairs of Congress since then. Singh was removed from the in chargeship of Telangana in August, 2017. Congress getting weak in Telangana was said to be reason behind his removal.
Singh, whose political weight in the party started to decline, came to the state in September, 2017 and left for Narmada parikrama. His getting permission for the parikrama and Rahul Gandhi not coming in six months during parikrama made clear that Singh was losing sheen in the party.
Singh, who completed his Narmada parikrama, was removed from the in chargeship of Andhra Pradesh in May, 2018. He was also relieved from the post of general secretary. As Singh has been relieved from all duties at national level, he is currently out of the mainstream of Congress.
After Singh not being included in the CWC, he is left with state Congress president Kamal Nath as his mentor. Nath had made Singh president of coordination committee and assigned Singh the job of uniting Congressmen by taking out ekta yatra. Nath, defending Singh’s exclusion from the CWC, said new leaders have replaced the old ones in the CWC.
