Jitu Patwari In Tears At Party Meeting As Madhya Pradesh Congress Cries For Help

The absence of senior Congress leaders at the party's Madhya Pradesh (MP) working committee meeting left state Congress president Jitu Patwari in tears.

Thursday (21 November) witnessed the first meeting of the newly formed Madhya Pradesh Congress team but the highlights were not any new strategy but protests and factionalism.

This was also the first meeting of the Political Affairs Committee, formed by Patwari 11 months after he became the state party president. However, only 12 of its 25 members were present, The Times of India reported.

The absence of senior leaders like Leader of the Opposition (LoP) Umang Singhar, former LOP Ajay Singh and former Chief Ministers Kamal Nath and Digvijaya Singh was pinching.

Reacting to the situation, Patwari appealed for the support of senior party leaders. "You are my seniors not just by years but also by experience. I am looking to you for support to strengthen the organisation," he said.

He also assured them of implementing their suggestions and even gave them the liberty to reprimand him in private. "I am nothing alone, if I don’t get your guidance it will be difficult for me to go forward," Patwari said.

While other senior leaders in the meeting like Rajya Sabha member Vivek Tankha and MP Congress in-charge Bhanwar Jitendra Singh tried consoling Patwari, the protests outside the office were another thorn in the foot.

Recently, Patwari appointed 17 vice presidents, 71 general secretaries, and 16 executive committee members to the Pradesh Congress Committee which dissatisfied many leaders who were not included leading to protests.

Patwari has been treading a difficult path as he himself recalled in the meeting and said with heavy voice, "You know under what conditions I was asked to take charge of the party."

Patwari replaced Kamal Nath as the MP Congress president in December last year after the party's poor show in assembly elections where its seat tally came down to 66 from 114 in 2018.

Notably, Patwari had himself lost the elections in Indore's Rau assembly constituency by a margin of 35,000 votes while Nath had won in Chhindwara along with ensuring Congress victories in all seven assembly constituencies in Chhindwara district.

However, it is believed that due to his closeness with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Patwari was appointed as the state Congress president, replacing Nath as the party unit was yearning for change.

However, under his leadership, the Congress' situation only worsened. The party witnessed mass defections during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Even Congress' Indore candidate Akshay Kanti Bam withdrew the nomination on the last day, making the contest one-sided and joined the BJP. Six-time MLA Ramniwas Rawat too joined the BJP and became a minister.

Congress could not win a single Lok Sabha seat in MP in its worst performance and even lost the Chhindwara bastion as Kamal Nath was fighting a lone battle there for his son Nakul Nath without the support of other Congress leaders.

The situation is unlikely to improve now as the BJP is likely to win the two assembly seats that voted in by-polls on 13 November, equalising its best-ever tally of 165 seats won in 2013.

The two seats that voted are Rawat's Vijaypur, where after resigning as a Congress MLA, Rawat contested as the BJP candidate and BJP bastion Budhni, vacated by former CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan.

Earlier, the BJP won one seat of Amarwara in the Chhindwara district in the July bypoll after then Congress MLA Kamlesh Pratap Shah defected to the BJP and won as the BJP candidate.

In the 2023 assembly elections, the BJP won 163 seats, adding Amarwara, it is now at 164. If BJP retains Budhni and wins Vijaypur, its tally will again touch 165, its highest-ever in the 230-member assembly.

This is not the peak of the BJP just in numbers but also in terms of political influence in the state, while the Congress influence is waning. The trend is likely to continue unless major changes are made which are invisible now.

The BJP's state media in-charge Ashish Agarwal was right in taking a jibe at the opposition Congress as he said, "This is not Jitu Patwari, but the Congress party’s tears."