There have always been fears that in the upcoming elections to the State assembly, infighting between Congress political heavyweights in Madhya Pradesh would mar the chances of the party despite there being a strong measure of anti-incumbency against the longstanding Shivraj Singh Chauhan government in the State. The worst fears on that front seem to be coming true if the recent spat between former chief minister Digvijay Singh and the chief of the campaign committee of the Madhya Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) and former Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia is anything to go by.
That the verbal spat happened in the presence of party president Rahul Gandhi at an election cell meeting to give final shape to the list of candidates contesting the impending Assembly elections reflected that all talk of Congress leaders sinking their differences to forge a common front against the BJP was mere hogwash. There is a third heavyweight in the party in MP — Kamal Nath — who was vested with responsibility to head the Congress State committee. That all these bigwigs are on their own ego trips and there is no love lost between them even as they profess unity is a hard reality of the times. By contrast, the BJP is relatively a cohesive unit, solidly arrayed behind Chauhan. It is small wonder then that with less than a month to go for the polls, it is advantage BJP in the country’s most populous state.
Eyewitness accounts say Digvijay Singh and Jyotiraditya Scindia sparred over ticket distribution and choice of candidates recently. Both had their own preferences and reservations. Speculation is also rife that all is not well between PCC president Kamal Nath and campaign committee chief Jyotiraditya Scindia either. The real bone of contention is who would be chief minister if the Congress were to come to power which, in any event, now seems only a remote possibility.
Seeing no room for compromise between the two senior leaders of the State Congress, Rahul Gandhi set up a three-member committee with Ashok Gehlot, Veerappa Moily and Ahmed Patel tasked to resolve the Digvijay-Scindia tangle. At the same time, there was the usual gag order to bury things under the carpet which is easier said than done. It is hardly surprising then that the BJP which was fighting the elections with its back to the wall is suddenly feeling rejuvenated.
It is said that Chauhan offered his shoulder to Digvijay, saying that the pain inflicted on him was a doing of his own party men. Digvijay has, on his part been mocking that his presence at public rallies can lead to loss of votes for the Congress and that’s the reason that he is being shunned by the party. The party has not forgiven Digvijay for the loss of Goa to the BJP when he, as the Central leader incharge of that state did not exert to cobble together a coalition despite the Congress having won more seats than the BJP in the State elections. That the BJP eventually formed the government is blamed on Digvijay whose credentials in weighing his words are not particularly strong.
Also, though Rahul Gandhi himself had also talked of Hindu terror in the aftermath of the Malegaon blasts, he apparently believes Digvijay by taking such a stand made the Congress unpopular with Hindus. Now that Rahul is on a drive to cultivate a pro-Hindu image by visiting temples across the country and professing that he is a Shiv-bhakt, he is apparently keen not to expose Digvijay to majority community voters.
Rahul Gandhi had recently said during a campaign in Madhya Pradesh that Chief Minister Chauhan’s son’s name was found in the Panama papers, a remark that he later attributed to his getting “confused” with Chhattisgarh CM’s son. This, the BJP touts, is a sign of confused thinking in the party’s top echelons. But all said and done, there is a degree of fatigue that has set in among the people of Madhya Pradesh with 15 years of BJP rule under Shivraj Singh Chauhan. If the Congress fails to capitalise on it, it would be a reflection of the party’s failure to channelize the frustration of people at large.