Ahead of his Narmada Yatra, Digvijaya Singh elbowed out as Congress face in poll-bound Madhya Pradesh

The leadership issue in Madhya Pradesh Congress is inching towards settlement. Former Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia seems to be emerging as the frontrunner for leading the party in the state Assembly elections due in end 2018.

The development comes after Madhya Pradesh Congress' most senior leader Kamal Nath forsook his claim for the party's face in favour of Jyotiraditya Scindia today. Kamal Nath and Jyotiraditya Scindia together have managed to elbow party general secretary Digvijaya Singh out of the reckoning.

"I have no problem with Jyotiraditya Scindia if he's made MPCC (Madhya Pradesh Congress Committee) chief," Kamal Nath said today when asked about the person who would be chosen to lead the election.

Kamal Nath, who himself was a claimant to the party chief's post, said, "I would welcome it and work with him and support him."

Kamal Nath, a nine-consecutive term Lok Sabha MP from Chhindwara , is on a visit to the state. He was on a visit to Jyotiraditya Scindia's Lok Sabha constituency of Guna near Gwalior.

The senior leader said there was no problem in Scindia getting nominated as the chief of MP Congress as both of maintain cordial political and family terms. "I have no problem, the moment Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi decides, others will also start working together," he said.

Ruling himself out, he said, "I have no aim or hunger for any position. I had said that Scindia should be made the MPCC president 20-25 days ago."

The Congress leadership is supposed to make an announcement formalising the new arrangement shortly. With the three veterans - Kamal Nath, Jyotiraditya Scindia and Digvijaya Singh - asserting themselves, party president Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi were finding it tricky to arrive at a conclusion.

But the tussle within the party seems to have ended with Kamal Nath throwing his weight behind Scindia. With this announcement, Digvijaya Singh has been edged out of the leadership race.

While Kamal Nath is touring MP, Digvijaya Singh is starting a 3300-km tour of the Narmada river on September 30. The Narmada 'parikrama' is aimed at keeping himself relevant in the state politics.

The former CM appears to have fallen out of favour with the Gandhis. The party general secretary lost being in charge of Goa and Karnataka this April.

He was reportedly held responsible for the Congress, despite being the single largest party, having lost the chance to form government in Goa after the February Assembly elections.

He was dropped as in charge also of Karnataka, which goes to polls early 2018. However, he remains the party's general secretary and Rajya Sabha MP.

Digvijaya Singh is learnt to have taken the leave for six months from party work. However, he would be meeting people in about 100 of the 230 constituencies that his tour of the Narmada river would take him to.

His Narmada yatra comes barely four months after MP Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan's similar six-month yatra which ended in May. Perhaps it was Digvijaya Singh's symbolic message to be seen as a challenger to Chouhan.

Incidentally, the BJP, led by Uma Bharati, had wrested power from Digvijaya Singh in 2003. Subsequently, Uma Bharati was succeeded by Babulal Gaur who was replaced by Shivraj Singh Chouhan.

Chouhan had lost to Digvijaya Singh in the 2003 Assembly elections. The former chief minister wants to be seen as someone who could pose a challenge to the incumbent chief minister, his party colleagues appear to have succeeded in check-mating him.

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