Following its crushing defeat in the Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh assembly elections, the Congress removed Kamal Nath from office as state president of Madhya Pradesh, installing OBC leader Jitu Patwari as PCC chief and tribal leader Umang Singhar as leader of the legislature party in the state.
Deepak Baij will continue to lead the party's state chapter in Chhattisgarh, while former Union minister Charan Das Mahant will assume the role of Leader of the Opposition.
Even while the decisions were not entirely unexpected, many were caught off guard by how quickly they were made in the wake of the party's crushing defeat in the most recent polls. Even if the Congress was also humiliated in Rajasthan, internal conflicts are likely to delay the decision to restructure the organisation. Tenacious OBC leader, Patwari’s appointment as Madhya Pradesh Congress president points towards a generational shift in the state Congress, with the former elbowing out veteran Nath. While Patwari lost the polls this time, he served as MLA twice.
Umang Singhar, the party's well-known tribal face and the perceived nemesis of former chief minister Digvijaya Singh, was named head of the Congress Legislature Party by Congress in an apparent attempt to send a message. He is the Gandhwani MLA for four times. His nephew, Jamuna Devi, was the two-time LOP and previous deputy chief minister.
In Chhattisgarh, Mahant was appointed Speaker of the Chhattisgarh assembly after Congress swept the assembly elections in 2018. He was earlier an MP from Korba constituency. During the 15th Lok Sabha, Mahant was the sole Congress MP from Chhattisgarh.