In what shows that all may not be well within the Congress, two senior leaders of the party, former Madhya Pradesh chief minister, Digvijay Singh and Jyotiraditya Scindia engaged in a heated argument over the distribution of tickets for their candidates. The war of words between the two leaders acquires significance as it took place just a few days before the Madhya Pradesh assembly polls. What makes it even worse for the Congress is that, it unfolded in the presence of the party president Rahul Gandhi.
The Congress president probably found the spat too hot to handle and sensing no signs of reconciliation, between Digvijay Singh and Jyotiraditya Scindia, he setup a three member committee. Members of the committee are Ashok Gehlot, Veerappa Moily and Ahmed Patel. In order to solve the issue, the committee held a meeting till late night on Wednesday. It has been reported that the Congress leaders have been told to remain tight-lipped on this issue. It seems that the Congress understands that it is in a fragile situation and this could potentially embarrass the grand old party.
This is not for the first time that a report of factionalism within the Congress in the poll bound Madhya Pradesh has come up. Earlier, it had been reported that in order to resolve the conflict regarding the dispute between its senior leaders for chief minister-ship, the Congress was considering the absurd idea of not fielding any of its senior leaders in poll bound states of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. Therefore, it had been reported that the grand old party party may not ask Madhya Pradesh state unit president Kamal Nath, Guna MP Jyotiraditya Scindia, Rajasthan state unit president Sachin Pilot, and Rajasthan Congress seniors Ashok Gehlot and C P Joshi to contest assembly elections in their states. This went on to expose the weak side of the Congress and showed how deeply troubled it was by internal factionalism in the run up to assembly polls in the above-mentioned three states. Irked by the uncomfortable situation that it found itself in, the Congress was reportedly considering this bizarre solution of taking its senior leaders out of the equation and therefore accepting defeat even before the battle started. The reports about the verbal spat between Scindia and Digvijay Singh shows that all is not well within the Congress and factionalism is reaching new levels.
The fact that this strife has surfaced just a few days before the Madhya Pradesh polls, sends across a very negative message for the Congress. It seems that the differences between the two leaders are irreconcilable, especially given that the party does not have a lot of time to resolve them in view of the upcoming elections. What must be considered is the fact that the spat took place in the presence of the party president Rahul Gandhi. This clarifies that Rahul Gandhi neither commands the authority that a party president must command nor does he have the skill to resolve factionalism within the Congress. At this point of time, it seems that Rahul Gandhi is totally helpless in controlling and calming the internal strife and this puts the grand old party in a spot of bother. If this continues, the Congress will not have even chances of putting up a fight against the BJP in the upcoming polls.