Today in Politics: Congress’s day of introspection — will Kamal Nath step down?

MP Congress president Kamal Nath and senior leaders Digvijaya Singh and Suresh Pachouri are among those who will address the meeting. One big decision before the party is deciding who will lead it going forward. Though Nath, a quintessential political survivor, can never be counted out despite the heavy defeat, there are already murmurs of discontent speaking about Nath’s “overconfidence”, alleged tendency to centralise power, “poor poll management” and inability to curb infighting for the defeat.

Whether the party decides to enact radical changes or keep this leadership team in place till the Lok Sabha elections will be keenly tracked, given that its fortunes in the parliamentary polls will depend to a large extent on it. Kamal Nath will meet Kharge on Tuesday and may step down as MP Congress chief, PTI reported late Monday night, quoting sources. According to the news agency, the Congress high command is unhappy with him for meeting Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan in Bhopal during the day instead of holding meetings with party leaders and workers.

In Rajasthan, Sachin Pilot who led a rebellion against Ashok Gehlot’s leadership three years ago and buried the hatchet with him just months ago, has issued his first public comments on the party’s defeat. “Repeating the government was the aim of all of us. And we should honestly introspect over this, and we will have to. We will have to find out the reasons why we could not be successful and act on them,” Pilot told the media on Monday.

After Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge brokered his peace with Gehlot in July, the Tonk MLA had said, “Kharge told me, and it was as much advice as direction coming from the Congress president, to forgive, forget, and move forward.” Will the former Rajasthan Deputy CM stay quiet given that his party has a crucial parliamentary election to fight a few months down the line, or will the old fissures reappear? That is likely to be the question on the minds of Congress watchers as the party looks for urgent answers to pressing problems.

Meanwhile, Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar will meet Kharge in New Delhi on Tuesday to hand over a report recommending the name of the next chief minister of Telangana. It increasingly looks like it will be A Revanth Reddy and the announcement is likely to be made on Tuesday, according to Manoj CG and Sreenivas Janyala. The party is mulling over appointing one or two Deputy CMs to balance the caste equations and whether the high command accepts the recommendation or not will likely determine how smoothly it goes for the Congress after this.

In Parliament

With the Lok Sabha Ethics Committee report recommending Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Mahua Moitra’s now expected to be tabled on Tuesday, expect fireworks in the Lower House if it happens. At a meeting of the Business Advisory Committee on Monday chaired by Speaker Om Birla to finalise the week’s agenda, Opposition MPs demanded that the report be discussed before any decision is taken on the matter.

The Rajya Sabha is scheduled to discuss the “economic situation in the country” from noon onwards. Derek O’Brien (TMC), Sushil Kumar Modi (BJP), and Vijayasai Reddy (YSRCP) are scheduled to participate.

To be published later today in Political Pulse: “From the Urdu Press”, Shahid Pervez’s column where he tracks and analyses what has been making news in Urdu dailies.

— With PTI inputs