Madhya Pradesh polls: Too many contenders for CM's post

Though assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh are almost one and a half years away, the Opposition Congress, which is looking to prevent the Bharatiya Janata Party from scoring a hat-trick in the state, appears to be divided on the issue of chief ministership.

A section of the party led by Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industries Jyotiraditya Scindia favoures contesting the polls under the leadership of tribal leader and Madhya Pradesh Congress Committee president Kantilal Bhuria as the chief minister. But Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh has said the party high command, after consultations with party legislators, will elect the leader.

When asked whether the Congress will contest the 2013 assembly polls under his leadership and also about his chief ministerial ambitions, Scindia recently told reporters at Indore, "I don't have any chief ministerial ambitions and the party will contest the elections under the leadership of Bhuria, who is the state party president."

To this, Bhuria said, "I am a disciplined party worker. My president has asked me to resign from the Union ministry and directed me to take charge of the Congress in Madhya Pradesh. In the future, whatever the party high command asks me to do, I will do."

Meanwhile, Singh, who arrived at his ancestral Raghogarh town to launch his son Jaiwardhan's padyatra in Raghogarh assembly constituency in the run-up to the 2013 polls, said, "In the Congress, there is a system to be followed. The party never projects anyone in advance as its leader and will follow the practice this time also."

Referring to Scindia's remark, he said, "Scindia is a senior party leader. It might be possible that he must have said something on the issue."

While the party has made Bhuria the state Congress president, Ajay Singh was made the Leader of Opposition in the state assembly.

Ajay recently embarked on his Jan Chetna Yatra from Orchha town in Madhya Pradesh where the absence of both Nath and Scindia was noticed in political circles.

Tribal leaders like late Shivbhanu Singh Solanki, Dilip Singh Bhuria and Ajit Jogi among others have supported the idea of making a tribal leader the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh.

None of them have succeeded so far in this regard. Dilip Singh Bhuria even left the Congress to join the BJP, but failed to win an election from his traditional Jhabua seat.

Jogi was able to fulfill his dream of becoming the chief minister only after the creation of Chhattisgarh state.