Ready to become MP Congress president, says minister Bachchan

Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Bala Bachchan on Wednesday said he was ready to become president of the state Congress if he was asked by the party to take up the organisational post.

Infighting in the Madhya Pradesh Congress is delaying appointment of a new MPCC president with various factions laying claim to the post.

Chief Minister Kamal Nath, who will be completing one year in office next week, is currently holding the post of Madhya Pradesh Congress president.

I am a small party worker. By working in the party I have reached to this position.

"Whatever responsibility is given to me, I am ready to discharge it religiously, Bachchan, a tribal leader, told reporters here.

Bachchan, considered a Nath loyalist, was asked about his name doing the rounds for the post of MPCC chief in political circles here. The home minister was also asked whether he was ready to up the new responsibility if assigned.

Nath has resigned from the post of MP Congress head two times in the last 11 months - first after taking over as chief minister in December 2018 and second time when his party faced crushing defeat in the state in the April-May Lok Sabha elections.

The Congress could win just one of the 29 Lok Sabha seats in MP. Barring Chhindwara, won by Congress candidate Nakul Nath, Kamal Nath's son, the BJP swept all the seats.

Despite resigning twice, the party high command asked Nath to continue in the organisational post till a successor is appointed.

Jostling among different camps in the state Congress said to be delaying the appointment of a new president.

Amid sharp differences among different groupsover the MP Congress chiefs post, Congress president Sonia Gandhi in September intervened and referred the issue of public spat between senior leader Digvijaya Singh and forest minister Umang Singhar to the partys disciplinary committee.

Singhar, said to be close to senior party leader Jyotiraditya Scindia, had criticised Singh and accused him of running a proxy government in the state.

Singh had queered the pitch for Singhar, a tribal leader, who wanted to become the state party chief, Congress sources said.

In September, Scindias supporters had taken to the streets demanding that their leader be made the MPCC president.

In the same month, the former Guna MP had said Gandhi would take a call on the new MPCC chief and her nominee would be acceptable to all.

Scindia had lost the chief ministerial race to Nath narrowly when the Congress came to power in the state in December 2018 year after 15 years.