Kamal Nath-Sonia meeting in Delhi

Bhopal, Nov. 6

Madhya Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) president and former chief minister Kamal Nath’s meeting with Congress president Sonia Gandhi in Delhi on Saturday has sparked off fresh speculations about his replacement as the Congress chief in the state.

Although a party spokesman has said that Kamal Nath had met Sonia to brief her about the election outcome and discuss other national issues, sources said most of the Congressmen in Madhya Pradesh are extremely nervous as they ‘see no light at the end of the tunnel’ after another round of defeat under the leadership of Kamal Nath.

Nath has been holding two posts since 2018. First, he was made the PCC chief in mid-2018 by party high command and then soon after he became the chief minister in December, trouncing BJP in the Assembly polls.

However, after his government collapsed in 2019, he swiftly became the leader of Opposition and also continued as PCC chairman till date.

After the recent drubbing of the Congress in three bye-elections, Congressmen are expecting a change in the party’s leadership and want a younger face like Jitu Patwari who is close to Rahul Gandhi to lead the party.

Of the four by-polls, Congress won only in one, though Kamal Nath had repeatedly said that his party would win all the four seats.

In earlier by-polls to 24 seats in late 2020, Congress performance was dismal again and that had led to establishing Shivraj Singh as the chief minister firmly in the saddle. The chief minister has been making mockery of Nath as a ‘twitter leader’' who rarely visited ground level workers of his party.

While the ageing Kamal Nath was not available for any comment, sources said that before the next Assembly elections in 2023, Congress high command will have to decide on the alternatives for two veteran Congress leaders --Kamal Nath and his crony Digvijaya Singh -- who have failed the ordinary workers in Madhya Pradesh.

Nath will have to give up at least one post, insiders told Lokmat. But the absence of unanimity may delay the decision about which post Nath will vacate, if at all.