Octogenarian leader and a former minister Hazari Lal Raghuvanshi has been replaced by senior leader Chandra Prakash Shekhar, AICC General Secretary B K Hariprasad told PTI.
Sources said there were complaints against Raghuvanshi that he violated party discipline and spoke against party leaders and was particularly very critical of Madhya Pradesh Congress chief Kantilal Bhuria, who took charge of the party's state unit in April 2010.
Bhuria was Tribal Affairs Minister in the central government before being shifted to the state.
The faction-ridden party in the state recently saw a group of MLAs meeting AICC leaders here to demand a change in leadership before Assembly elections in the state this year.
They wanted Bhuriya to be replaced, arguing that the party has accomplished little under his leadership having lost every by-poll and most local body elections.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi had flagged the issue of factionalism during the party's Chintan Shivir in Jaipur.
"Is it not the case that we have floundered many opportunities that people are willing to give us simply because we have been unable to function as a disciplined and united team....In states where we are out of power especially, we should be coming together, setting aside personal ambitions and egos, and working cohesively so that the party triumphs," she had said.
AICC General Secretary Digvijay Singh, Union Minister Kamal Nath, Minister of State Jyotiraditya Scindia, former Union minister Suresh Pachauri and Rajya Sabha member Satyavrat Chaturvedi are some of the prominent leaders from the state, where Congress is out of power since 2003.
