Kamal Nath’s Bhavi Mukhymantri tag brings MP Congress’s infighting in the open

Even as the former CM maintains that the decision is up to elected MLAs, voices in the party and elsewhere have risen in dissent

Cracks in the Madhya Pradesh Congress have become more visible with leaders making mutually contradictory statements on projecting former Chief Minister Kamal Nath as the party’s face for the 2023 Assembly election.

On Wednesday, Mr. Nath — already in campaign mode travelling to various districts — said in Umariya that he could not stop any party worker from raising slogans calling him the Bhavi Mukhyamantri or the future Chief Minister.

“I cannot stop anyone from sloganeering but I am not in search of any post,” he said. He was responding to a statement by fellow Congress leader and former MP PCC president Arun Yadav, who had recently said that it would be decided by the MLAs after the elections.

Another leader, former Leader of Opposition Ajay Singh Yadav, echoed these views on Tuesday. “It is the tradition of the Congress that the MLAs elect their leader. No one says about themselves that they are the future Chief Minister. All I can say about myself is that I want to become a future MLA,” he said.

The term Bhavi Mukhyamantri was first used at the beginning of this year when the party put up posters calling Mr. Nath the future CM. In the days that followed, the term was also used by official spokespersons in communication with journalists.

As recently as Thursday, the Madhya Pradesh Congress’s Twitter handle posted a tweet saying, “Madhya Pradesh wants Kamal Nath” and its cover picture still says that “Kamal Nath government is arriving”.

It was the party’s MP in-charge J.P. Aggarwal who objected to the term. Two weeks ago, responding to a question on Mr. Aggarwal’s take on the issue, Mr. Nath himself had said that selection of Chief Minister involved a process and that was followed in every party, Congress being no exception.