Singh’s loyalists stated that he himself was keeping away from interfering in ticket distribution in MP and Chhattisgarh.
The Congress candidates for the Madhya Pradesh elections will be decided by the trio of party president Rahul Gandhi, state Congress chief Kamal Nath and campaigning in-charge Jyotiraditya Scindia. This effectively means that former Chief Minister Digvijaya Singh, 71, has played out his innings in the politics of the central state. Singh’s tenure as a Rajya Sabha MP will end in mid-2020.
Ever since becoming active in politics in the late 1960s and till the last Assembly election in 2013, Singh has always played a crucial role in the deciding candidates for a large number of the 230 seats in the present state Assembly whose strength was 320 before Chhattisgarh was carved out from it in November 2000.
Bhopal-based party sources said that Singh, who is still the only Congress leader in the state who has a team of loyal party cadre in every district of the state, is not taking part in the decision-making process regarding candidate selection, something which he used to do till 2013.
“Scindia and Kamal Nath have been given the final authority by Rahul Gandhi to decide on who will get the ticket from where. Rahul Gandhi has told them they can consult any leader, take inputs including from Singh, Leader of Opposition Ajay Singh and other senior state leaders. The final list will be cleared by Rahul Gandhi himself,” a senior party functionary said.
According to state Congress leaders, Singh has been asked to focus on strengthening the organisation and not to do any public interface. Singh had earlier stated that “mera kaam keval ek… Koi prachar nahi, koi bhashan nahi. Mere bhashan dene se to Congress ke vote kat te hai… mai jata nahi (I have only one job… No campaigning, no speech. When I deliver a speech, Congress votes get reduced… so I don’t go).”
Some of Singh’s loyalists stated that he himself is keeping away from interfering in ticket distribution in Madhya Pradesh and in Chhattisgarh.
“Till the last elections, he would influence candidate selection in more than 60 seats in Madhya Pradesh and 20 in Chhattisgarh. This time he himself told those who met him for tickets that he would try to help them but he could not commit on anything. It is good that he did not give false hopes to anyone,” a party functionary and a ticket hopeful said.