The Congress on Thursday night named veteran leader Kamal Nath as Madhya Pradesh's next chief minister, after hours of hectic parleys held by the party chief Rahul Gandhi with senior party leaders.
Nath, 72, reached Bhopal late in night to be greeted with chants of 'Jai Jai Kamal Nath' by his supporters at the airport and headed straight for the party office for a meeting of the newly-elected MLAs to select their leader.
Nath, who served as Union minister in the previous Congress-led governments, has been a top contender for the chief minister post ever since his party won against the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, which was in power in this central Indian state for 15 years.
Another senior party leader and former Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia was also in the race.
'Our best wishes to Shri @OfficeOfKNath for being elected CM of Madhya Pradesh. An era of change is upon MP with him at the helm,' the Congress tweeted.
'Jai Jai Kamal Nath' was the slogan his supporters were chanting when the Congress stalwart, once described by the late Indira Gandhi as her 'third son' for helping her take on the post-emergency Morarji Desai-led regime in 1979, reached Bhopal on Thursday night armed with the mandate from the party high-command to become the new chief minister of Madhya Pradesh.
This new responsibility has been given to Nath by Indira Gandhi's grandson and Congress president Rahul Gandhi after hectic parleys spread over two days ever since the party managed to secure the numbers to form the government in his vast state after a gap of 15 long years.
His supporters credit 72-year-old Nath for steering the Congress win this important central Indian state, where Shivraj Singh Chouhan was the longest-serving chief minister of Madhya Pradesh and at the helm since 2003.
But Nath's claim for the top job did not go unchallenged as much younger Scindia, 47, put up a strong challenge and the party president Rahul Gandhi had to finally take the tough call between what he himself described using a quote of Leo Tolstoy that 'the two most powerful warriors are patience and time'.
Eventually, it was the experience that trumped over the the need for a change and Nath became the chosen one, keeping in mind the political maneuvering that may be required in run-up to the Lok Sabha polls next year.
Along with Scindia, Nath was tasked with reviving the fortunes of the opposition Congress in Madhya Pradesh, where the party has been out of power since 2003 and had to face a BJP onslaught in the final days of electioneering.
During the hectic campaigning for the assembly polls, the BJP had attacked Nath after an audio-video clip went viral in which he was heard asking clerics to ensure 90 per cent voting in the state's Muslim-dominated areas to ensure a Congress victory.
It was a different scene on Thursday night when Nath, a nine-time Lok Sabha MP from Chhindwara, was greeted with chants of 'Jai Jai Kamal Nath' when he arrived at Bhopal airport and headed state for the Congress Legislative Party meeting that formally selected him as their leader and the next chief ministerial face.
People in Chindwara refer to the district as an 'oasis' in the dirt and then there are references like 'keechad mein Kamal' -- punning on the BJP's party symbol 'Lotus (Kamal)'.
It was in Chhindwara that the former prime minister Indira Gandhi had once introduced Nath, saying, "This is my third son. Please vote for him," recalled senior journalist Sunil Shrivastava, who covered that election meeting.
When Nath was chosen by Rahul Gandhi as the state Congress chief in April over Scindia, the Lok Sabha member from Guna and scion of the erstwhile Gwalior dynasty, the MP Congress unit was riddled with factionalism.
Though the differences again came into play when it was time to decide on the chief ministerial face, Nath's supporters say he made efforts before elections to bring together senior party leaders -- former MP chief minister Digvijay Singh, Scindia and Suresh Pachouri -- well aware that groupism may have had a role in keeping the party out of power for the last 15 years.
He ensured that regional satraps got representation in the allotment of tickets, leaders close to Nath said.
The Congress also made judicious use of the energetic Scindia to pull voters towards the party by appointing him the state campaign committee chief.
Earlier in the day, Gandhi's official residence in Lutyens Delhi became a revolving door as the four main chief ministerial claimants and All India Congress Committee observers for the three Hindi heartland states, which includes Chhattisgarh, made repeated visits to hold several rounds of discussions to help the party president untie the gordian knot.
As hours went by without an announcement, tension and sloganeering rose among supporters of various contenders, spilling into violence in some areas of Rajasthan.
The 41-year-old Sachin Pilot and Ashok Gehlot, 67, the two hopefuls for Rajasthan, appealed to party workers to maintain peace and discipline, saying they have full faith in the party leadership and would abide by its final decision.
After briefing Gandhi, AICC in-charge of Rajasthan, Avinash Pande, told PTI: "We have given a detailed report on the views of party MLAs to the Congress president, who will take a final call on chief ministers. The decision will be announced at the legislature party meeting in Jaipur."
Elected Congress MLAs in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh have passed one-line resolutions authorising Rahul Gandhi to decide on the chief minister.
In Chhattisgarh, some scuffles took place outside the residence of state party chief Bhupesh Baghel, 57, who is one of the contenders apart from leader of opposition in outgoing assembly T S Singh Deo, 66, OBC leader Tamradhwaj Sahu, 69, and party veteran Charan Das Mahant, 64.
Hectic parleys also continued till late Thursday evening among top party leaders for deciding the chief minister for Chhattisgarh, where Congress has got a clearer mandate than the other two states.
While Rahul Gandhi met the party's central observers -- K C Venugopal for Rajasthan and A K Antony for Madhya Pradesh -- to seek their inputs on views of newly-elected legislators in the states, he separately met Gehlot, Pilot, Nath and Scindia at his Tughlak Lane house.
"We are checking, taking inputs from different people in the party. We are taking inputs from MLAs and workers. We are getting a comprehensive answer to what the Congress party and others feel," Gandhi had told reporters outside Parliament earlier in the day.
Sources said the chief minister for Chhattisgarh would be decided after the central observer for the state, Mallikarjun Kharge, briefs Gandhi about views of the state's party MLAs.
As deliberations continued, supporters of all contenders raised slogans and flashed banners in support of their respective leaders -- outside the party offices in the three states as also outside the house of the top leader in the national capital.
Gandhi had also sought views of party workers through an internal messaging system with a pre-recorded message asking them to send their views directly to him through the application.
Facing his first test within the Congress, Gandhi had started hectic deliberations with senior party leaders early on Thursday morning and a final decision was expected by the evening to enable the oath-taking ceremonies at the earliest.
The party has already staked its claim for forming governments in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.
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