After Jyotiraditya Scindia, Name of Digvijaya Loyalist Ajay Singh Doing Rounds for MP Congress Chief's Post

Bhopal: Senior Congress leader and former leader of Opposition in the Assembly Ajay Singh is said to be the frontrunner for the post of state part chief. On Tuesday evening, former chief minister Digvijaya Singh paid a visit to Ajay’s residence in Bhopal. He was accompanied by Minister Govind Singh and the trio had a lengthy closed-door conversation.

However, Digvijaya said the meeting had nothing to do with the appointment of the Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) president. “Whoever manages a seal on his name from Sonia Gandhi would be our president,” he said, while clarifying that he himself was not in the contention for the post.

Ajay Singh, son of late party veteran Arjun Singh, had lost both the last Assembly and Lok Sabha polls held in the state. A key member of Digvijaya’s Thakur (Rajput) lobby, Ajay is said to be desperate to keep himself in the reckoning with the coveted post.

The name of former Guna MP Jyotiraditya Scindia has also been doing the rounds for some time. Despite being appointed chairman of the screening committee for the poll-bound Maharashtra, Scindia’s supporters have been openly pitching for him in the state.

“It is understandable that leaders in Maharashtra want a young, dedicated and popular leader like Maharaj (Scindia), but we won’t be satisfied unless he is handed the key responsibility in Madhya Pradesh,” said Imarti Devi, a minister and staunch Scindia loyalist. Some of his supporters have even threatened to resign, while others have staged demonstrations, one such protest being held in Jabalpur on Tuesday, over their demand.

With the resignation of Rahul Gandhi as national Congress president and Sonia being brought back to the post, the party’s old guards are hoping to have their way and Digvijaya might actually end up putting Ajay in the top post.

However, the response from Chief Minister Kamal Nath, who is yet to resign as the PCC chief, would also be interesting. Nath is said to have a dislike for leaders from the Vindhya region (Ajay hails from here) and also would want one of his loyalists to take over as the state head to keep things under his control. Nath was appointed to the post in May last year and did not step down even after assuming office as chief minister in Dec 2018.