Did Kamal Nath's highhandedness cost Congress dear in Madhya Pradesh?

New Delhi: An autocratic style of functioning and arrogance of Madhya Pradesh Congress president Kamal Nath are said to be the main reasons for the party's debacle in the state that some months before the assembly elections appeared to be headed for a change of government.

Newsdrum spoke to several Congress leaders from Madhya Pradesh to find out how the grand old party lost the plot in the slogovers.

All of them were unanimous in claiming that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was in the doldrums at the beginning of the election process with chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan facing twin factors of anti-incumbency and fatigue of 18 years.

According to these leaders, the entire election management and preparedness of the party was in the hands of Kamal Nath's personal staff who played a key role in ticket distribution.

Some of the examples cited by them are:

His close aide Praveen Kakkar manipulated the candidate selection process to give a ticket to his relative Dharmesh Ghai from Maihar. Ghai lost by nearly 21,000 votes.

Kamal Nath's strategist and Man Friday Imroz Khan insisted on giving a ticket to sitting legislator Suneel Saraf from Kotma despite negative surveys against him. He too lost the polls by over 22,000 votes.

Kamal Nath's another Man Friday Mukesh Jat is said to have played a vital role in giving a ticket to Ajay Balram Singh Patel from Seoni-Malwa and he ended up losing by over 36,000 votes. There were allegations of financial dealings regarding his candidature.

Similarly, the Congress leaders further claimed, the selection process was manoeuvred to accommodate former minister KP Singh 'Kakka Joo' from Shivpuri in place of Virendra Raghuvanshi who had come from the BJP. Kakka Joo had last contested from Pichore from where Arvind Singh Lodhi was given the ticket this time. The BJP won both seats. While Kakka Joo lost by over 43,000 votes, Lodhi was defeated by over 21,000 votes.

It is said that in the screening committee meetings, Kamal Nath would sit for brief periods and authorise Imroz Khan to make decisions on his behalf. While Imroz Khan dictated the terms, in-charge general secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala and panel chairman Jitendra Singh would sit as mute spectators. Kamal Nath had also disallowed All-India Congress Committee (AICC) secretaries to sit in the screening committee meetings. Out of the six such meetings, these secretaries attended only two.

Talking about former chief minister Digvijaya Singh's role, they claimed that he ensured 42-45 tickets for Rajputs despite the community's population standing at 5-7 per cent in the state. His brother Lakshman Singh lost from Chachoura by over 61,000 votes.

While state leaders such as Arun Yadav, Suresh Pachauri and Ajay Singh were completely sidelined, Kamal Nath also did not let Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah, his deputy DK Shivakumar, Himachal Pradesh chief minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu and other star campaigners to canvass for the Congress in Madhya Pradesh.

It is also said that Kamal Nath repeatedly ignored suggestions by poll strategist Sunil Kanugolu. He had on his own hired a private agency to conduct surveys.

In fact, ten days before the polling, Kamal Nath got upset with Kanugolu for opposing his move to give an interview to one of the journalists who had been boycotted by the INDIA bloc. Kamal Nath is said to have been so angry that he directed his security guards to throw Kanugolu's team members out of a make-shift office in Bhopal housed in the official bungalow of his Member of Parliament son Nakul Nath.

Kanugolu later approached Rahul Gandhi who in turn asked Surjewala to provide his team with alternate accommodation.  

Kamal Nath had already ruffled the INDIA grouping by refusing a proposed unity rally in Bhopal some months ago. He had also snubbed Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav and CPI(M) leaders for seeking a seat-sharing alliance.

These disillusioned Congress leaders concluded that it would be good for the party in Madhya Pradesh if both Kamal Nath and Digvijaya Singh were forcibly retired from the organisation and the leadership was given in the hands of young and fresh faces.