By Neeraj Mishra

The Congress candidate list of 2023 for Madhya Pradesh looks a lot like it did in 1993, 1998 and 2003. It’s back to the past, courtesy former chief minister Digvjaya Singh. It was the decade when he ruled the state but even 30 years later, he refuses to let go of his iron hold over the party’s state unit. He has lived through the Shivraj Singh Chouhan years with his hunting pack intact and while that may be a credit to him personally, it does nothing for the party.

With most pre-poll surveys predicting a Congress sweep and some suggesting a closer contest, Digvijaya has grabbed the opportunity to stamp his authority on the state Congress. It is a clever manoeuvre as he knows Chouhan is up against a loaded anti-incumbency factor, so he wants to reap the harvest with his old flock. All his ministers from his 1990’s cabinet have managed a ticket and therein hangs a tale. If the Congress fails to come up trumps this time, it will be the anti-incumbency factor working against team Digvijaya, who was known as Mr Bantadhar who led Congress to its worst ever performance of 32 seats in 2003.

Take a look a the Diggi ministers: Rakesh Chaudhary, NP Prajapati, Narendra Nahata, Ramniwas Rawat, Dr Govind Singh, Rajendra Bharti, Laxman Singh (brother), Jaivardhan Singh (son), Yadvendra Singh, Nati Raja, Brajendra Singh, Mukesh Nayak, Sukhendra Singh, Ajay Singh (Arjun Singh’ son), Kamleshwar Patel, Vanshmanni Verma, Sukhdev Panse, Raj Kumar Patel, Arif Akil, PC Sharma, Priyavrat Singh (nephew), Hukum Singh Karada, Sajjan Verma, Vijay Laxmi Sadho, Bala Bachchan, Bhanwar Singh Shekhawat. All from the old team and where the father has passed away, the son continues to be in the Diggi fold and has thus got the ticket.

If you have read this far, then you would have also noticed the overwhelming Thakur presence in the list. Thakurs account for less than 2 per cent of the state electorate but their continued hold over the power levers is admirable and Diggi Raja is at the forefront of this chain.

This also exposes the Congress pretence of holding pres-elections surveys of possible winning candidates from within the fold. If these are the winning candidates, then the Congress has not grown at all. Most of these gentlemen have lost at least two elections since 2003. Most of these gentlemen are also in their 70s. Rahul Gandhi’s surveys are either totally rubbish or are manipulated to the extent that only those names cleared by Digvijaya appear in the final list. So whichever party wins in Madhya Pradesh, it will be more of the same. If victorious, the Chouhan gang will continue to fleece the system and if the Congress wins, the Digvijaya pack will be back with its bag of old tricks.

The post Digvijaya Singh’s iron hold makes space for his cronies in Congress list appeared first on APN News.