Bhopal: The Congress on Saturday announced the new state committee for Madhya Pradesh, naming party veterans and former Chief Ministers Kamal Nath and Digvijaya Singh as executive members. The previous committee was dissolved by the party 10 months ago.
With this decision, State Congress President Jitu Patwari finally got his new team — Madhya Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC).
The Jumbo state committee has a total of 177 members, with 17 vice presidents and 16 general secretaries.
According to the list issued by the AICC late Saturday, the new state committee has 33 permanent invitee members and 40 special invitee members.
Other executive committee members are — Rajya Sabha MP Vivek Tankha, Opposition leader Umang Singhar, former Union Minister Kantilal Bhuria, former Opposition leaders Govind Singh and Ajay Singh.
Minakshi Natrajan, Kamaleshwar Patel, and Arun Yadav have also been included as state executive committee members.
Patwari will be assisted by 16 vice-presidents which are — Arif Masood, Hamid Qazi, Hina Kavre, Jaivardhan Singh, Jhuma Solanki, Lakhan Ghanghoria, Lakhan Singh Yadav, Mahendra Joshi, Ravi Joshi, Sachin Yadav, Siddharth Kushwaha, Rajeev Singh, Priyavrat Singh, Phool Singh Baraiya, Mahesh Parmar, Sukhdev Panse and Surendra Baghel.
Notably, the AICC had dissolved the Madhya Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) following an embarrassing defeat in the Assembly elections held in November 2023.
The Congress had contested the last Assembly elections under the leadership of former Chief Minister Kamal Nath. He was made the MPCC head six months ahead of the Assembly elections in 2018, and the party had managed to return to power after a gap of 15 years.
However, an internal rift between Kamal Nath and Jyotiraditya Scindia led to a collapse of the Congress government within the next 18 months, following 22 Scindia loyalist MLAs joining the BJP in March 2020. Therefore, Kamal Nath’s government was toppled, however, he remained as state unit head.
Congress also fought the 2023 Assembly elections under Kamal Nath’s leadership, however, it lost which made the AICC change the party’s leadership in Madhya Pradesh.
Subsequently, Kamal Nath was replaced by Jitu Patwari as State Congress President in December 2023.
The party’s central leadership also replaced the state in-charge Randeep Surjewala with Bhanwar Jitendra Singh in January this year.
On his first visit to Bhopal in January this year, the new in-charge for the Madhya Pradesh Congress announced to dissolve Madhya Pradesh Congress Committee. Since then, the new committee has been awaited.
–IANS