The Madhya Pradesh unit of the Congress was in danger of losing a second senior tribal leader to the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) which has been steadily gaining ground in the state. Rajya Sabha member Ajit Jogi was in touch with BSP supremo Kanshi Ram after the election of PCC president for the state was put off at the last minute on Tuesday.
The party lost former Union minister Arvind Netam to BSP just a few weeks ago.
Jogi was to follow suit, the Congress would be left without a senior tribal leader from the Chattisgarh area where the majority of the states tribal population is concentrated.
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A senior party leader said Jogi had appeared to be the strongest candidate in the running to become the PCC president. He had the backing of Arjun Singh and Madhavrao Scindia who between them controlled the majority of the states PCC delegates who comprise the electoral college.
The main candidate against Jogi was Dalir Singh, also a tribal. He had the backing of Chief Minister Digvijay Singh and former Union minister V C Shukla. However, between them, this camp had the support of only about a third of the delegates, according to state party leaders. Jogi would have won with a two-thirds majority, said one of them.
However, just before the election was to be held on Tuesday, Arjun Singh and some others pressed the delegates to leave the choice to Congress President Sitaram Kesri, so that there was no division in the state and the authority of the party chief was enhanced. Jogi returned to the capital yesterday and had been in touch with Kanshi Ram. Jogi has had a good rapport with Ram for a long time and had been one of Kesris key intermediaries when he was trying to retain the Cong-BSP alliance after the UP assembly elections late last year.