‘MP Congress hijacked by 1-2 leaders’: As party wiped out in state, voices rise

After the Congress failed to even retain its lone seat in Madhya Pradesh on Tuesday, voices of unrest have grown louder in the party’s Congress unit.

Speaking to The Indian Express, former Leader of the Opposition and Churhat MLA Ajay Singh Rahul attributed the loss “to top leaders who have hijacked the party”. The son of former Madhya Pradesh chief minister and senior Congress leader Arjun Singh, Ajay Singh called on the party high command to review the situation.

“It is not only this election… Systematically, the party has been hijacked by one or two leaders over a period of time. In 2018, we had an elected government which did not even last 15 months (referring to the Jyotiraditya Scindia episode, when he left the party and took 22 MLAs with him). It is a systematic thing,” Singh said.

In a swipe at former CM Kamal Nath without naming him, Singh referred to the buzz in February, ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, regarding him leaving the Congress for the BJP. The rumours were sparked by the Congress’s unexpectedly big loss in the Assembly elections, led by Nath. The incumbent BJP, in power for almost 20 years at a stretch, had won 163 of the 230 seats in the state polls.

“He was going to join the BJP a month before the election… Even ordinary workers were forced to think about their future. He says I am going and then he says he is not. That had a major impact on workers across Madhya Pradesh. Such a big leader wished to join the BJP and many others were waiting to leave with him,” Singh said.

He added that the party should discuss “why a large number of Congress leaders left before the elections”. “When I was the Leader of Opposition in 2013, and the government was not formed, I was asked to resign,” Singh pointed out.

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