Kamal Nath out as state chief as Congress rebuilds with younger faces after Madhya Pradesh drubbing

The Congress has also appointed tribal leader Uman Singhar as the Leader of Opposition in the state assembly and Hemant Katare as the deputy leader. With these appointments, the Congress party has inducted young leaders to the top posts, necessitated by the fact that the party lacked youth leaders as it headed into the assembly elections, which were largely steered by veteran leaders Nath (77) and former CM Digvijaya Singh (76).

कांग्रेस अध्यक्ष श्री @kharge द्वारा श्री @jitupatwari को मध्य प्रदेश कांग्रेस कमेटी का प्रदेश अध्यक्ष, श्री @UmangSinghar को CLP लीडर और श्री @HemantKatareMP
को डिप्टी लीडर नियुक्त किया गया है।

आपको नई जिम्मेदारी की बधाई एवं भविष्य के लिए शुभकामनाएं। pic.twitter.com/sF2A3ScvcK

— Congress (@INCIndia) December 16, 2023

The party had also been waiting to restructure its organisation as the BJP has replaced sitting CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan with Ujjain south MLA Mohan Yadav, and is expected to make significant changes in its organisation in the coming days as the Lok Sabha elections approach in a few months.

Patwari was the former minister of higher education, sports and youth affairs in the Kamal Nath-led government. He is from the Malwa Nimar region, the same region from where CM Mohan Yadav belongs, which is also known as the bellwether area with 66 seats. He is also seen as a youth leader belonging to the OBC community, and is close to the farmer community. He is also said to be close to senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, all factors which Congress insiders say helped his elevation to the post.

During the elections, he had taken up an important position in the Congress campaign after he was elevated as co-chairman of the MP campaign committee, and his Jan Akrosh (public anger) rallies witnessed large numbers.

Patwari had also been cornering the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government over corruption scandals like the patwari (revenue officer), police and teacher recruitment scams. However, this was not enough to stop his BJP challenger Madhu Verma, who won by a margin of 35,522 votes.

Nath had on December 14 skipped the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meet, where they passed a one-line resolution authorising party president Mallikarjun Kharge to choose its head along with the LOP. Over the past few days, Nath has been in Chhindwara, thanking people as Congress managed to retain all its seven seats in the district.

Singhar had won the elections from Gandhwani constituency in Dhar district. He began his political career in 2008 when he was elected to the Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly. He was appointed the Minister of Forests in the Kamal Nath government in 2019 and served in this position until the government was dismissed in 2020.

During the assembly elections campaign, Singhar, the sitting Congress MLA from Madhya Pradesh’s Gandhwani constituency, raised the demand for a tribal chief minister, a remark which deviated from the party’s position that former CM Kamal Nath will be its CM candidate.

On December 5, during the first Congress Legislature Party meeting, held after the party was reduced to 66 seats in the state, Singhar had attacked Digvijaya Singh for “running the government from the backroom”, but he later apologised for his comments on social media.