Exactly a month after being appointed as AICC general secretary in-charge of Madhya Pradesh, Deepak Babaria today arrived here and got the first hand feel of groupism and fighting besetting the party in state, which goes to the poll next year-end.
As soon as Babaria arrived on his maiden visit to the state after becoming AICC general secretary of MP at station, members of a group in state Congress jostled with other factions and received him.
Different groups were near to exchanging blows to draw nearer to him for garlanding and throw their weight around him.
He was taken to circuit house. All the groups, however, reached the circuit house and met Babaria amid tension.
Later, Babaria, who has replaced Mohan Prakash as AICC general secretary in charge of MP, came to the state party office.
He met party senior leaders and cadres at the office and will remain in the city tomorrow.
There are speculations in the Congress that after Mohan Prakash's exit from state, the party leadership has a plan to change its state guard Arun Yadav with Congress chief whip in Lok Sabha Jyotiraditya Scindia as well.
Already, one of the state Congress heavyweight and former union minister Kamal Nath had told reporters recently in Guna that he was not averse to Scindia being projected as chief ministerial candidate.
Earlier, the two leaders had been vying for the post.
To revive the party in Madhya Pradesh, Congress president Sonia Gandhi last month had constituted a new team to hold the charge of looking after party affairs in Madhya Pradesh and appointed Deepak Babaria as AICC general secretary in-charge.
The party leadership had also appointed two AICC secretaries in-charge, Zubair Khan and Sanjay Kapoor, to assist him in handling the party affairs in Madhya Pradesh.
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