A LONE RANGER'S BATTLE FOR PRIDE

The one thing that strikes you as you enter Kamal Nath’s residence-cum-office at Shyamla Hills in Bhopal is that it does not have the gloomy vibe you might expect, given that he recently lost power and the way he lost it. Congress leaders, aides, and advisors troop in through the day to meet the recently deposed Madhya Pradesh chief minister. Though the Election Commission has not announced dates, all the buzz is about the by-elections to 27 assembly segments in the state. For Nath, nearly 74, the polls will be a crucial political test that will decide whether he returns to power or spends the remaining assembly term as leader of the opposition, an office he assumed recently.

Rahul Noronha

The bypolls have been necessitated by the resignation of 22 Congress MLAs, who left the party with Jyotiraditya Scindia this March to prop up a BJP government in the state. Three more Congress MLAs resigned subsequently while two seats fell vacant due to the demise of the incumbent lawmakers.

To return to power on its own, the Congress, which now has 89 MLAs in the 230-member MP assembly, will need to win all 27 seats. The BJP, which has 107 MLAs, needs just nine seats to attain a simple majority.

During the 2018 assembly election, the Congress campaign was jointly shepherded by Nath and Scindia while veteran Digvijaya Singh did the behind-the-scenes planning and kept a check on potential dissidents. While Nath and Scindia are rivals now, political observers suggest that not all is well between the former chief minister and his once-trusted ally Digvijaya. But Nath, who is the state Congress chief, is unperturbed by the challenge. “I have contested and won more elections than most politicians in the country. As the party in-charge, I have organised more elections than anyone. Our fight is against the organisation of the BJP,” says Nath.