NEW DELHI, SEPT 17: Congress president Sonia Gandhi is understood to have cleared the appointment of four working presidents to the Madhya Pradesh Congress Committee, an unprecedented move aimed at placating the dominant groups in the faction-ridden State party unit.The four who are believed to have been chosen are: Congress spokesperson Ajit Jogi representing 10, Janpath, former MPCC chief Parasram Bharadwaj on behalf of S C Shukla and V C Shukla, state minister Rajmani Patel of the Arjun Singh camp and former state minister Balendu Shukla of the Madhavrao Scindia group.An announcement to this effect is expected to be made soon once the file is signed by Sonia. Discussions on this have been on for some days and are now in the final stage. During his tenure as MPCC working president, Jogi will cease to be party spokesperson and is likely to return to the post after the state elections.Each of the four has been given one area of MP to oversee for the coming Assembly polls but the catch is that allfour are believed to be anti-Digvijay Singh. The Chief Minister, who faces the tough task of retaining power in the last big state ruled by the Congress, thus finds himself having to share work with his detractors. This is being seen as part of the compromise formula for having allowed Digvijay to stay on as Chief Minister by Sonia after she took over as Congress chief.The MP Congress unit is one of the tougher units Sonia has had to tackle with the rival groups showing no signs of lessening their attacks on each other. Recently, during the party's Pachmarhi conclave, Sonia called an emergency meeting of eight top MP Congress leaders asking them to call truce. The meeting failed in its objective and a lot of time was spent flaying Digvijay instead.That discussion ended in a spate of accusations and counter-allegations. That acrimony has continued to dictate events in the MP Congress thus forcing Sonia to appoint four working presidents for the elections in one go. Already the MPCC has a full-fledgedpresident, Urmila Singh, and a working president Dalbir Singh.The newly-appointed four will take the tally to six plus Digvijay. Dalbir Singh is seen as ineffective and is expected to stay on in Bhopal while the others hit the field. Jogi will handle the Chhatisgarh area and is a tribal Christian. He comes from Chhatisgarh, an area which traditionally backs the Congress. However, things may not be that simple in the coming polls with the BJP trying hard to make a dent here.Parasram Bharadwaj is to oversee the Maha Kaushal area which former Union minister Kamal Nath represents. This part of MP is where the Congress is hoping to do relatively better than others and Bharadwaj will work with Nath. Kamal Nath is currently an ally of Digvijay and is hoping his region will send in a large chunk of Congress MLAs to the House.Rajmani Patel has been chosen to handle the Vindhya Pradesh region while Balendu Shukla will look after the Madhya Bharat region which Madhavrao Scindia counts as his area of influence.All four working presidents will be roughly handling 80 constituencies each and the Congress leadership is keeping its fingers crossed that they deliver.
