 "kamal nath, digvijaya singh")
The massive victory of the Congress in Karnataka Assembly elections earlier this year has rekindled hopes for the party's return to power in Madhya Pradesh too, as the state is slated to go to polls by the end of this year.
The bigger question is who would be the chief minister if Congress wins in Madhya Pradesh?
Let's take a look at all of the top candidates from Congress for the forthcoming MP elections.
Kamal Nath
Former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath, who is now the head of the state Congress president, would seek to avenge the fall of his government in 2022 and return to the top post one more time.
Kamla Nath joined Congress in 1971. He was first elected to the Lok Sabha in 1980 from Chhindwara in Madhya Pradesh. He is also one of the longest-serving MPs, having won nine consecutive terms from the same seat.
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At the Centre, Nath has held several ministerial portfolios, including Commerce and Industry, Urban Development, Environment and Forests, and Parliamentary Affairs. He was also the pro-tem Speaker of the 16th Lok Sabha in 2014.
Kamal Nath was appointed chief minister in December 2018 after the Congress won with a narrow majority. However, his government collapsed in March 2020 after MLAs loyal to Scindia defected with the latter to the BJP.
Meanwhile, with the campaign for the polls in full swing, Nath has adopted a soft Hindutva stance by projecting himself as a devotee of Lord Hanuman to counter the BJP's Hindutva card. He has also been targeting incumbent Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan for his alleged misgovernance, corruption, and failure to control crime against women, tribals, and Dalits.
Nath has also focused his campaign on hyperlocal issues, highlighting the failures of the BJP government. He has promised to implement pro-poor and pro-farmer policies, as well as to improve infrastructure. Among the promises are Rs 1,500 per month for women, LPG gas cylinders for Rs 500, and 100 units of free electricity.
Digvijaya Singh
Digvijaya Singh, a former chief minister, is a key figure in the Congress campaign and has been extensively touring the state, chipping away at the BJP by exploiting party squabbles and weaning away its leaders in the Gwalior-Chambal and Bundelkhand regions.
Singh has been in politics since 1977 and is well-known for his outspoken nature. He now serves as a Rajya Sabha MP and a Congress Working Committee (CWC) member.
Born into the then royal family of Raghogarh on February 28, 1947, in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, Singh graduated from Shri Govindram Seksaria Institute of Technology and Science in Indore and joined the Congress in 1970.
He was first elected to the Assembly from Raghogarh in 1977 and became chief minister in 1993, serving two consecutive terms till 2003. He is considered to be close to the Gandhi family and a loyalist of senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.
For the upcoming polls, Singh has been undertaking massive public outreach programmes in BJP strongholds, meeting grassroots workers, troubleshooting rivalries, and shaping the ground-level organisation to take on the BJP poll machinery.
He also said that a caste-based census would be done if Congress is voted to power in the state in the forthcoming assembly polls.
"I have always supported this. If we come to power here, we will also get a caste-based census done in Madhya Pradesh," he was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
Jaivardhan Singh
Jaivardhan, Digvijaya Singh's son, has been focusing on the Scindia strongholds in the Gwalior-Chambal region. He was recently credited with bringing some Scindia loyalists back to the Congress.
Jaivardhan entered politics in 2013 when he won the Assembly election from Raghogarh. He trounced his nearest rival by more than 59,000 votes, the highest among all Congress candidates that year. He was re-elected in 2018 by a margin of more than 64,000 votes, and Nath assigned him the Urban Development and Housing portfolio.
Jitu Patwari
Patwari, a former minister of higher education, sports and youth affairs, is the working president of the state Congress. Patwari is also the co-chairman of the MP Congress Committee and his Jan Akrosh rallies have drawn large crowds.
Patwari has been part of the offensive against the Chouhan government, aiming to corner it over corruption scandals such as the patwari (revenue officer), police, and teacher recruitment scams.
The Rau MLA was born on November 19, 1973 in Bijalpur, a small town near Indore. He completed his schooling at the Government Multi Malhar Ashram Higher Secondary School, Indore, and then pursued his BA and LLB degrees from Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya in Indore. His grandfather, Kodarlal Patwari, was a freedom fighter. His father Ramesh Chandra Patwari is also an active Congress leader.
Kamleshwar Patel
According to party insiders, Patel, who was recently inducted into the CWC, may "pose a challenge for other prominent leaders in the Vindhya Pradesh region" since he will be "strategising to deliver BJP strongholds" in the region.
Patel, who the leadership hopes to be the next prominent Other Backward Class (OBC) leader, was in charge of managing the Jan Akrosh rallies.
He is the son of Indrajeet Kumar, a former seven-time MLA from Sidh.
Patel started his career in politics as a student leader in the late 1980s. He served as the general secretary of the National Students' Union of India and was the vice president of the state Youth Congress till 2001.
His first step into the central leadership came in 2009, when he was appointed the national coordinator (tour) of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.
Patel won his first Assembly election from Sihawal in 2013 by more than 32,000 votes and was re-elected with a similar margin. He was the Minister of State (MoS) for panchayat and rural development in the Nath government.
