Scindia to head Cong poll campaign panel in MP

In a bid to galvanise the party ahead of the crucial assembly elections, the Congress on Tuesday appointed union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia as the head of the party’s campaign committee in Madhya Pradesh.

In a bid to galvanise the party ahead of the crucial assembly elections, the Congress on Tuesday appointed union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia as the head of the party’s campaign committee in Madhya Pradesh.

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Though the Congress party usually does not follow the practice of naming a chief ministerial candidate ahead of assembly polls, Scindia, 42, would be for all practical purposes the party’s face for the elections.

The Congress has been out of power in the state for the past ten years and is desperately seeking to wrest power from the BJP in the assembly elections scheduled for November this year. Digvijaya Singh was the last Congress chief minister who ruled the state for 10 years from 1993.

Scindia’s appointment has a clear imprint of Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi who is keen on bringing about a generational change in the party. The 38-member important campaign committee also has Mandsaur MP and Gandhi’s close aide Meenakshi Natarajan and former state minister Indrajeet Patel as its conveners.

The 22-member state election committee has all senior leaders from the state, including union parliamentary affairs minister Kamal Nath, Digvijaya Singh and Scindia.

Senior leader Suresh Pachouri is the chairman of the manifesto committee. While state CLP leader Ajay Singh, son of late Arjun Singh, has been made head of the charge-sheet drafting committee, party MP Arun Yadav heads the assembly election management panel that will coordinate with leaders from grassroots to higher levels. Another MP Premchand Guddu is leading the panel to took after publicity, publication and media committee.

Kamal Nath will coordinate among all the poll-related panels, a party release said.