New innings for old guard

CONG’S CHOICE Kamal Nath next Madhya Pradesh chief minister; decision on Rajasthan expected today

NEW DELHI/BHOPAL/JAIPUR: After two days of deliberations, endless meetings, and significant jockeying by the supporters of chief ministerial aspirants, Congress president Rahul Gandhi, after consulting various leaders including United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson Sonia Gandhi, and looking at the choice of every booth-level party worker in the states concerned, picked Kamal Nath, 72, as chief minister of Madhya Pradesh.

For Rajasthan, he was also expected to pick Ashok Gehlot, 67, or Sachin Pilot, 41. He was in a late-night meeting with Gehlot, immediately after meeting Pilot, at the time of going to print at 12:10am. For Chhattisgarh, the decision on the next chief minister is likely to be made on Friday.

The Congress won a landslide in Chhattisgarh, clearly won Rajasthan, and edged out the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Madhya Pradesh on Tuesday. On Wednesday, the elected legislators of all three states passed resolutions asking Gandhi to pick their CMs. There were two aspirants in Madhya Pradesh, Nath and Jyotiraditya Scindia; two in Rajasthan, Gehlot and Pilot; and three in Chhattisgarh, Bhupesh Baghel, TS Singhdeo, and Tamradhwaj Sahu.

Even as the candidates themselves chose to play it cool, their supporters expressed themselves, with Pilot’s backers blocking roads in Bharatpur and Karauli in protest.

Although some critics blamed the Congress party and Gandhi for “indecisiveness” in choosing the chief ministers of the three states, the delay in such a process isn’t anything new.

In October 2014, the BJP took nine days after the results of the Maharashtra elections were announced to pick Devendra Fadnavis as its chief minister. In March 2017, it took the BJP eight days after the Uttar Pradesh election results to pick Yogi Adityanath.

Hours before the announcement of the Madhya Pradesh CM, Gandhi tweeted a photo with Nath and Scindia at his residence in New Delhi. Along with the photo, the Congress president posted a fitting quote by Russian philosopher and writer Leo Tolstoy: “The two most powerful warriors are patience and time.”

After Gandhi’s tweet, Scindia posted the same photo and said: “It is not a race, it is not about kursi, we are here to serve the people of Madhya Pradesh. I am leaving for Bhopal and you will get to know the decision today.”