Ministers seek bigger role for Jyotiraditya Scindia as Kamal Nath faces dissent in MP

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath is facing dissent within the Congress after three ministers in his government demanded that Jyotiraditya Scindia be put in charge of the state party unit, following the Congress’s heavy defeat in the state in the Lok Sabha election.

The demand

Reports suggested Scindia was the most likely choice to take over the state Congress and lift the morale of party workers. Women and Child Development Minister Imarti Devi said Scindia was an energetic leader and Congress president Rahul Gandhi should give him a bigger responsibility, such as leading the state. Pradyuman Singh Tomar, the Food and Civil Supplies Minister and also a Scindia loyalist, said Congress workers across the state wanted a young and energetic leader, adding that he was not saying this only because he was a Scindia supporter.

The murmurs against the state leadership grew after Rahul Gandhi’s recent remarks suggesting that Kamal Nath, P Chidambaram and Ashok Gehlot had paid extra attention to their sons. Amid fears that the BJP was eyeing the state, Kamal Nath asked his ministers to take care of MLAs to prevent poaching.

Background

Scindia lost out to Kamal Nath for the chief minister’s post after the Congress won the Assembly election, and was instead made one of two general secretaries, along with Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, to rebuild the party in Uttar Pradesh. He was in charge of western Uttar Pradesh, but the Congress was reduced to a single seat in the state, Sonia Gandhi’s, and Rahul Gandhi lost Amethi. In the 2018 Assembly election, the Congress had won 114 seats against the BJP’s 109.

Kamal Nath had wanted to give up the post of state Congress chief after becoming Chief Minister in December, saying it was hard to hold both jobs, but the party leadership asked him to stay on because the Lok Sabha polls were only months away.

The biggest blow for the Congress in the state, which the BJP won convincingly in the counting on May 23, was perhaps Scindia’s own defeat in Guna, a seat his family had held since Independence. He lost to the BJP’s Dr KP Yadav by more than a lakh votes.

See also: state assembly members

Originally published on 29 May 2019. Rewritten on 9 October 2026.

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