NEW DELHI, Jan 2:
Congress will within a week’s time elect the new leaders of the Congress Legislature Party in the BJP-ruled states of Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, where the party was handed crushing defeats in the recently-concluded Assembly polls.
Party sources said that senior Congress leaders Oscar Fernandes and CP Joshi will go to Madhya Pradesh as observers to attend a meeting of the CLP there on January 5.
For Rajasthan, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Gurudas Kamath would be the observers to facilitate a decision on the next CLP leader at a meeting on January 7, they added. Kamath is the AICC General Secretary in-charge for Rajasthan.
While Congress was ousted from power in Rajasthan, it failed to wrest Madhya Pradesh from BJP at the recent polls.
While the party’s tally took a further dip in Madhya Pradesh, it was complete decimation for Congress in Rajasthan, where Ashok Gehlot had been Chief Minister. He has been succeeded by Vasundhara Raje after BJP stormed to power with a massive majority.
Congress could win only 21 seats in the 200-member Rajsthan Assembly. Gehlot is reportedly not too keen to take on the CLP leader’s job.
In both Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, the main worry for the Congress is to find leaders who can build the party.
Ajay Singh, son of the late Congress leader Arjun Singh, was named CLP Leader for Madhya Pradesh in April 2011, filling a post which had been lying vacant for over six months since the death of Jamuna Devi in 2010.
Singh, seen as belonging to the Digvijay Singh camp, is a six-time MLA. Congress had projected Jyotiraditya Scindia as its face for the Assembly polls in the intensely faction- ridden state. But the party suffered a huge defeat with its tally coming down to 58 from 71 seats in the 230-member Assembly.
The top Congress leadership has hinted that corrective measures would be taken with the choice of the new CLP leaders designed to give an idea of the future course the party’s politics is to take in the two states. (PTI)
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