Days after the party’s poor show in Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections, the Congress on Saturday removed Kamal Nath as its state unit chief. Kamal Nath has been replaced with Jitu Patwari as the new Madhya Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) chief.
“Hon’ble Congress president has appointed Shri Jitu Patwari as the President of Madhya Pradesh Congress Committee with immediate effect. The party appreciates the contributions of outgoing PCC president, Shri Kamal Nath,” a statement issued by Congress General Secretary KC Venugopal read.
The Congress has also appointed Umang Singhar as its Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly leader. Hemant Katare will be Singhar’s deputy in the MP Assembly.
The decision to remove Nath comes days after the Congress party suffered a big defeat in the Madhya Pradesh legislative assembly elections.
The Congress was reduced to just 66 seats in the recently held polls, down from 114 in 2018. The BJP secured a landslide victory by winning 163 of the 230 seats.
Following the results, Kamal Nath had said that the results will be analysed and discussions will be held with winning and losing candidates.
There were also rumours that Nath may retire from politics but he dismissed them yesterday.
“I am not going to retire. I will be with you until my last breath. Let’s see how high your electricity bills go under the BJP government,” Kamal Nath had said in Chhindwara.
The new MP Congress chief belongs to the OBC category, which accounts for over 50 per cent of the state’s total population.
Patwari had lost the recently held elections to BJP candidate from Sau with a margin of over 35,000 votes.