It’s Kamal vs Kamal: Nath to lead Congress in 2018 battle

BHOPAL: Six months ahead of the assembly elections, former Union minister Kamal Nath was on Thursday appointed Madhya Pradesh Congress president. The ninetime MP from Chhindwara will lead Congress into battle against the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government, entrenched for 14 years.
AICC president Rahul Gandhi ended weeks of speculation by anointing 71-yearold Kamal Nath as PCC chief — a hat he’s wearing for the first time in a political career spanning four decades.Out of power in MP for three terms, Congress has chosen experience over all other calculations of caste, lineage and age.
Guna MP Jyotiraditya Scindia was named campaign committee chairman — the same responsibility he was given in 2013. The letter from AICC national general secretary Ashok Gehlot names four working presidents — deputy leader of Opposition Bala Bachchan, former ministers Ramniwas Rawat and Surender Choudhary, and Rau MLA Jitu Patwari, Congress’ youth face in the assembly.
Outgoing PCC chief Arun Yadav said he will not contest assembly or Lok Sabha polls and instead work for the party. “One of Congress’ seniormost leaders, Kamal Nath, has been appointed as the new PCC president. I thank AICC president Rahul Gandhi for this decision and also for giving me the opportunity to serve Congress for four-andhalf years,” he said.
Will ensure defeat of non-secular forces: Kamal Nath
Gehlot’s letter said, “The party appreciates the hard work and contribution of Arun Yadav.”
As news of Kamal Nath’s appointment broke, drumbeats and cheers broke out at the PCC office in Bhopal. The new PCC chief told reporters in Delhi that he will “ensure the defeat of non-secular forces”. “This is a very big challenge and responsibility. The future of an entire state is in question and hence, we will chalk out a new map for development of Madhya Pradesh. Today, every section of society in MP is distraught — from farmers and youth to traders, labourers and women. Never in the political history of the state has it happened that every section is harried and hassled. Herein lies the challenge — how to secure their future not just with new policies but a new system,” he said.
Kamal Nath is the only leader in MP who has directly worked with three generations of the Gandhis — Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi and now Rahul. He was considered a close friend of Sanjay Gandhi, too.
State Congress chief spokesman K K Mishra, however, said Nath’s appointment has energized the party rank and file. “Appointment of a senior leader like Kamal Nath as party president displays Congress party’s resolution to form a government in this state and BJP will have to go home. With Kamal Nath leading from front, Congress will achieve formation of government,” he said.
Born in Kanpur on November 18, 1946, to an established business family, Kamal Nath is at the other end of the spectrum from Shivraj Singh Chouhan, whose roots are in an OBC agrarian family from Vidisha. Educated in Doon School and at St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata, Kamal Nath seems to have emerged as the most acceptable leader in the faction-ridden Congress party. In the last three assembly elections, the party struggled with group rivalries as much as it did with the ruling party’s organizational might.