3 min readBhopalJun 8, 2024 08:55 AM IST
First published on: Jun 8, 2024 at 07:07 AM IST
After the Congress failed to even retain its lone seat in Madhya Pradesh on Tuesday, voices of unrest have grown louder in the party’s Congress unit.
Speaking to The Indian Express, former Leader of the Opposition and Churhat MLA Ajay Singh Rahul attributed the loss “to top leaders who have hijacked the party”. The son of former Madhya Pradesh chief minister and senior Congress leader Arjun Singh, Ajay Singh called on the party high command to review the situation.
“It is not only this election… Systematically, the party has been hijacked by one or two leaders over a period of time. In 2018, we had an elected government which did not even last 15 months (referring to the Jyotiraditya Scindia episode, when he left the party and took 22 MLAs with him). It is a systematic thing,” Singh said.
In a swipe at former CM Kamal Nath without naming him, Singh referred to the buzz in February, ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, regarding him leaving the Congress for the BJP. The rumours were sparked by the Congress’s unexpectedly big loss in the Assembly elections, led by Nath. The incumbent BJP, in power for almost 20 years at a stretch, had won 163 of the 230 seats in the state polls.
“He was going to join the BJP a month before the election… Even ordinary workers were forced to think about their future. He says I am going and then he says he is not. That had a major impact on workers across Madhya Pradesh. Such a big leader wished to join the BJP and many others were waiting to leave with him,” Singh said.
He added that the party should discuss “why a large number of Congress leaders left before the elections”. “When I was the Leader of Opposition in 2013, and the government was not formed, I was asked to resign,” Singh pointed out.
Sources close to Madhya Pradesh Congress chief Jitu Patwari, who has been asked to step down by the leadership following the loss, said he would soon “rebuild the party”, which is “an exercise that was long overdue and had been delayed due to the Lok Sabha elections”.
A senior Congress leader said it is “unfair” to ask Patwari to step down. “He just had a few months at the helm (before the Lok Sabha polls) and was given the big task of putting up a challenge at a time that many leaders had left the party due to their greed or under threat of investigation by Central agencies.”
The BJP, triumphant after the Lok Sabha performance coming on the back of Assembly poll win, is claiming the Madhya Pradesh Congress unit will splinter further.
In a swipe at former CM Kamal Nath without naming him, Singh referred to the buzz in February, ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, regarding him leaving the Congress for the BJP. 
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