‘Failure to take everyone along cost Cong govt’

The Congress is also facing a tussle between chief minister Ashok Gehlot and his deputy, Sachin Pilot, in Rajasthan. In Chhattisgarh, chief minister Bhupesh Baghel and state health minister TS Singh Deo have been at loggerheads.

The Congress’s failure in resolving internal squabbles and former chief minister Kamal Nath’s inaccessibility to lawmakers and workers were the primary causes for the fall of their government in Madhya Pradesh on Friday, leaders of the party and experts said.

The Congress failed to appoint a state party chief in Madhya Pradesh for 15 months to replace Kamal Nath, who took over as chief minister in December 2018.(PTI)

The party’s top leadership has been indecisive in resolving differences within the Congress’s state units, they added.

The Congress is also facing a tussle between chief minister Ashok Gehlot and his deputy, Sachin Pilot, in Rajasthan. In Chhattisgarh, chief minister Bhupesh Baghel and state health minister TS Singh Deo have been at loggerheads. There have been differences between Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh and his former ministerial colleague, Navjot Singh Sidhu, as well.

Political analyst Rajendra Sharma said the Congress’s central leadership has for decades encouraged factionalism to ensure a complete control over the organisation.

“In Madhya Pradesh, it proved counterproductive,” he said.

Sharma added that the party needs to empower regional leaders and ensure those with mass base are not sidelined.

The Congress failed to appoint a state party chief in Madhya Pradesh for 15 months to replace Nath, who took over as chief minister in December 2018.

The party did not take cognisance of growing complaints about former chief minister Digvijaya Singh’s interference in running the government.

Former Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, who joined the Bharatiya Janata Party on March 11, had repeatedly also flagged his concerns about the state government’s failures in implementing the Congress’s pre-poll promises.

A Congress leader, who did not want to be named, said Nath may blame Scindia for the downfall, but the former never tried to understand the Madhya Pradesh politics and failed to address grievances of the workers over 15 months of his tenure. “This was the reason why Nath failed to appoint even a single party leader to government boards and corporations.”

The leader said by the time the party formed a coordination committee for Madhya Pradesh under general secretary Deepak Babaria’s leadership in January, it was too late.

“Had this committee been formed earlier and been effective, perhaps the 22 Congress lawmakers [and Scindia supporters] would not have revolted,” he said.

Political analyst Dinesh Gupta said Nath and his secretariat worked like a corporate house and there was almost no interaction with workers or the people.

Another analyst, Girija Shankar, said Nath could not come out of Digvijaya Singh’s shadow, whom many party leaders blame for the Congress’s debacle in the 2003 assembly elections. The party remained out of power for 15 years after that.

Congress spokesperson Abhay Dubey said when Nath took over, government coffers were empty and the administration was in a shambles.

“He wanted to give a direction to the administration and it was not an easy task. It is wrong to say that he did not have communication with the party and other people. Those who deserted the party were overambitious and they would have left in any situation.”