The Indian National Congress appointed Jitu Patwari as its Madhya Pradesh chief on Saturday, 16 December, replacing Kamal Nath days after the party’s meagre performance in the state during recent Assembly elections.
An official statement by the Congress said, “Hon’ble Congress President has appointed Shri Jitu Patwari as the President of Madhya Pradesh Congress Committee, with immediate effect."
"The party appreciates the contributions of outgoing PCC President, Shri Kamal Nath," the statement added.
Patwari is a former MLA from the Rau assembly constituency and lost the seat in the recent Assembly polls to BJP's Madhu Verma by a margin of close to 35,500 votes. He was the Minister for Higher Education, Sports and Youth Affairs in the Kamal Nath-led government between December 2018 and March 2020.
Moreover, the Congress' statement added that party President Mallikarjun Kharge has also approved the proposal to appoint Umang Singhar as the Congress Legislative Party Leader and Hemant Katare as the Deputy Leader of MP.
While the Congress failed to cash-in on over 20 years of anti-incumbency in the state and was reduced to just 66 seats, the BJP won 163 of the 230 seats in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections.
The Congress was hoping to achieve a repeat of the 2018 assembly elections, when the party was able to clinch victory from the incumbent BJP’s hands, albeit only to lose power in 2020 when a chunk of their MLAs defected to the BJP. While Congress leader Kamal Nath had expected to avenge his short-lived government’s fall, ultimately the party seems to have failed to come even close to the BJP’s numbers.
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