Kamal Nath out, Jitu Patwari appointed as new Madhya Pradesh Congress chief

Jitu Patwari replaced Kamal Nath as the president of Madhya Pradesh Congress Committee on Saturday. The Congress announced in a press release that Patwari has been appointed as the new Madhya Pradesh Congress chief "with immediate effect".

Besides this, Umang Singhar has been appointed as the new Congress Legislative Party (CLP) ;eader and Hemant Katare will take over as the new deputy leader of Madhya Pradesh, the Congress said in its statement.

The Congress appreciated the “contributions of the outgoing PCC president Kamal Nath”. The party's press release read, "Hon'ble Congress president has appointed Shri Jitu Patwari as the President of Madhya Pradesh Congress Committee, with immediate effect."

The party announced further, “Hon'ble Congress President has also approved the proposal of the appointment of Shri Umang Singhar, as the CLP leader and Shri Hemant Katare as the Deputy leader of Madhya Pradesh.”

The Congress's decision to replace the party chief of the state unit came days after the grand old party lost to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the recently concluded Madhya Pradesh Assembly Election.

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The BJP retained power in Madhya Pradesh after winning 163 of the total 230 assembly seats in the state. The Congress won 66 seats and the Bharat Adivasi Party bagged one seat in the 2023 state election.

Who is Jitu Patwari?

Jitendra (Jitu) Patwari is the new Madhya Pradesh Congress chief. He is a former MLA from Rau assembly constituency. He contested the 2023 Madhya Pradesh Election from the Rau seat and lost to BJP's Madhu Verma by a margin of 35,522 votes.

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He was the Minister for Higher Education, Sports and Youth Affairs in the Kamal Nath-led government between December 2018 and March 2020. He also held the post of the co-chairman of the Madhya Pradesh Congress campaign committee.

Earlier in the day, the Congress appointed Deepak Baij as the president of Chhattisgarh Pradesh Congress Committee and Charan Das Mahant as the CLP Leader of Chhattisgarh.