Kamal Nath named chief of Congress unit in poll-bound MP

New Delhi: Ahead of crucial state elections later this year, the Rahul Gandhi-led Congress party has appointed senior leader Kamal Nath as chief of the party’s Madhya Pradesh unit and Jyotiraditya Scindia as chairman of the campaign committee in the state. Apart from this, Gandhi also named Girish Chodankar chief of the party’s Goa state unit on Thursday.

“Congress president Rahul Gandhi has cleared the appointment of Kamal Nath as PCC president of Madhya Pradesh and Jyotiraditya Scindia as chairman, campaign committee of the state,” Ashok Gehlot, party general secretary in-charge of organization said in a statement.

The appointment of Nath, a nine-time Lok Sabha member from Chhindwara in Madhya Pradesh, is significant because it comes in the backdrop of upcoming polls where the Congress is pitted against the 15-year-long tenure of the BJP government led by chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan. Nath replaces Arun Yadav as the party chief in the state.

Scindia, a young face of the party in the state and four-time Lok Sabha MP, will oversee the party’s campaign in the state polls and play the crucial role of drawing up a strategy for the elections, senior party leaders said.

To bolster the party’s organizational strength in the state, it also appointed four new working presidents of the Madhya Pradesh state unit, which includes Bala Bachchan, Ramnivas Rawat, Jitu Patwari and Surender Chaudhary. In the run-up to the organizational changes, Gandhi’s close aide Deepak Babaria was made general secretary in-charge of the state.

Chodankar’s appointment is significant because he had played a key role in the party’s Gujarat campaign last year as well as unsuccessfully contested against Goa CM Manohar Parrikar in bypolls. Chodankar replaces senior party leader Shantaram Naik at the top post in the state.