Jitu Patwari appointed MP Congress unit chief, Umang Singhar appointed LoP

BHOPAL: Two weeks after the Congress lost the assembly election in Madhya Pradesh, the central leadership removed Kamal Nath as the State unit chief and appointed Jitu Patwari as the new chief.

The Congress has also appointed Umang Singhar as the Leader of Opposition (LoP). He was the Forest Minister in Kamal Nath’s cabinet.

Patwari, who contested the election from Indore’s Rau assembly constituency, lost against the BJP’s Madhu Verma. He was the Education and Sports Minister in the Kamal Nath led-Congress government.

Law graduate Patwari (50) has won two consecutive assembly elections in 2013 and 2018 from Rau, however, he could not retain the seat in 2023.

In Madhya Pradesh, Patwari has been rated as an aggressive politician and a future Congress leader in the state and is considered close to former Congress president Rahul Gandhi.

Kamal Nath had taken charge of Madhya Pradesh unit head ahead of 2018 assembly elections, and the Congress had managed back into power after 15 years. The grand old party had won 114 out of 230 assembly seats and had formed the government with help of Independent MLAs along with SP and BSP.

However, in March 2020, the then Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia along with his 22 loyalists MLAs had shifted into the BJP toppling the Kamal Nath government. Two years later, the Congress managed to win five out 16 mayoral seats, including Gwalior and Morena.

The victory in the mayoral elections had energised the state Congress cadre under Kamal Nath’s leadership and the Congress was looking confident to win the assembly election in 2023 due to high anti-incumbency.

However, the BJP, which contested the election under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, won 163 out 230 seats and the Congress was reduced to 66.