Bhopal: Two senior Congress leaders clashed over the choice of Madhya Pradesh unit president Kamal Nath as the party’s chief ministerial face for the year-end state assembly polls. The war of words between Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly Govind Singh and Nath’s loyalist Sajjan Singh Verma followed a meeting on preparations for the MP polls in Delhi on May 29, which was attended by party chiefs Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi.
After attending the meeting, Singh had said, “The Congress is a democratic party. It is not the tradition of the Congress to announce the CM’s face in advance. The public will elect the MLAs, who in turn will elect the CM.”
Hitting back, Verma said, “Govind Singh ji sometimes forgets whether the MLAs elected him as the Leader of the Opposition. No, he was not elected by the MLAs. He was senior, so we also respect him as the Leader of the Opposition.” agreed to the appointment.”
Verma said that the people of MP and the party leaders want Nath as the CM of the state, adding that Singh should behave the way he expects others to behave.
Verma said, “All the 22 present (at Rahul Gandhi’s meeting) accepted Kamal Nath as their leader. It is on record. All the leaders accepted that the 2023 election will be fought under the leadership of Kamal Nath.”
On Sunday, Singh issued a video statement claiming that his remarks had been misinterpreted by the media.
“It is true that all senior leaders have decided to contest the Madhya Pradesh assembly elections under the leadership of Kamal Nath. I have said many times that he is the leader of our party,” he said.
Singh, however, said that the chief minister is selected after the elections and in the legislature party.
Meanwhile, Congress Rajya Sabha member Digvijaya Singh also said that the party leaders want the election to be fought under the leadership of Kamal Nath.