Congress in Madhya Pradesh | Patwari Plots a Revival

The walls of Jitendra ‘Jitu’ Patwari’s office at his 74 Bungalows residence in Bhopal are covered with photos of the Congress pantheon. But two portraits—that of former Madhya Pradesh chief ministers Kamal Nath, 77, and Digvijaya Singh, 76—stand out, literally framing one of the key issues Patwari faces now. That is, how to work out a seamless transition from the old guard, represented by those two, to the new, of which he is the motif.

Patwari, 50, who took over the reins of the state Congress from Kamal Nath in mid-December, a fortnight after the party failed miserably in dislodging the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the assembly election, faces a trial by fire. There is the Lok Sabha election looming ahead, and the attrition in the Congress’s ranks—real and potential—is only making his job tougher.

While no one is willing to admit it on record, the Congress leadership has decided not to spread itself too thin. So, 14 out of the 29 Lok Sabha seats have been identified where it has a “realistic” chance of winning, discounting the 15 seats that the Congress has not won for the past five elections, such as Indore, Ujjain, Bhopal and Jabalpur. The seats in sharp focus are those with a substantial tribal population: Dhar, Ratlam, Chhindwara, Balaghat, Shahdol, Mandla and Sidhi. This assessment is based on the ST population’s perceived affinity towards the Grand Old Party. In the 2023 assembly election, even though the Congress’s tally in the 47 ST-reserved seats came down to 22 from the 31 it had won in 2018, the criticality of the tribal vote is not lost on the party. It did well in the tribal pockets of Dhar and Jhabua in west MP, and Chhindwara, Mandla and Dindori in east MP, besides Sheopur in the north. In fact, a third of its 66 newly elected MLAs belong to the community, which constitutes nearly 21 per cent of the state’s population. In the 2019 Lok Sabha election, too, the Congress’s lone win came from Chhindwara.

“Despite multiple schemes launched by the BJP government to woo the tribals, our tribal brothers have reposed their faith in the Congress,” Patwari, who is considered to be Rahul Gandhi’s choice for the post, told india today. “We will continue,” he added, “to focus on the community.” In line with the change of guard, the Congress has also decided to field younger candidates in these seats. “The idea is to groom future leaders,” says a party functionary, not wishing to be named, “who, even if they lose right now, would be willing to put in some extra work for the party to repose faith in them the next time.”

And this long-term planning is very much a part of the overall scheme of things under Patwari, which entails recreating a robust organisational base well before the next assembly election. Patwari is aware that the Congress still lacks a foothold at the grassroots level, despite tall claims made in the past about rebuilding the organisation. “My focus is on posts that work for the organisation,” he says, “and not on posts that are focused on elections,” that is, booth and panna pramukhs. “I want to strengthen the offices of district, block, mandal and sector presidents,” he explains. “Once these positions are active and in constant touch with people, the booth will start delivering electorally on its own.” Patwari plans to take the organisation down to the panchayat level and also focus on the state units of the Youth Congress, National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) and Mahila Congress, especially the latter, since women’s reservation will require having a ready pool of winnable women candidates.

Coming back to his short-term goal, that is, a decent performance in the general election, Patwari has decided to corner the BJP on issues concerning the farm sector. One of the promises in the BJP manifesto for the assembly election, which the state government has shown no sign of implementing for the upcoming Rabi procurement season, was that of procuring wheat at Rs 2,700 per quintal. The other was to buy paddy at Rs 3,100 per quintal, which, too, the BJP failed to keep after the election. The state Congress also plans to press for a minimum support price (MSP) for listed crops ahead of the general election, an issue already at the heart of the protests being led by the Punjab farmers.

While Patwari with his street-fighter image may have the blessings of the central leadership, working with the old guard in MP will not be a cakewalk. He will need to proceed cautiously, manage egos, build his own team and also deal with the empty coffers of the party. There has already been a flight of Congress leaders to the BJP and speculation abounds about more being en route; Kamal Nath’s ‘BJP switch’ buzz has only added to the confusion. Patwari is sure to have his hands full.

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