The Congress in Madhya Pradesh is back at its favourite game of factionalism.

      The people are feeling restive under the BJP misrule as was evident from the spontaneous crowds at the Congress meetings held in different parts of the State by newly appointed PCC president Suresh Pachauri early this year. The Congress workers across the State are itching to take on the BJP as one can surmise from the ebullience which they are displaying at the Division level party meetings being convened by chairman of the Campaign Committee Ajay Singh (Rahul Bhaiya). Then where is the problem?

      The problem is with the organisation which appears to be ill-equipped to channelise the people’s anger and the party workers’ enthusiasm against what the Congress leaders never tire of calling the corrupt and inefficient government. There is a discernible chill in the relationship between the two top leaders of the State Congress. Ajay Singh attended some of Pachauri’s meetings as only part of duty. On his part, Pachauri made only a peremptory appearance at the Division level meetings held by Ajay Singh.

      While the two leaders are restrained in their profound opinion of each other’s multifarious qualities, their followers cannot be faulted on that count. One can learn from Pachauri’s supporters how Rahul Bhaiya has failed to rise above mediocrity in spite of his father (Union HRD minister) Arjun Singh’s efforts to establish him as a leader in the State. Rahul Bhaiya’s fans – they are much more numerous than Pachauri’s --- have nothing but contempt for Pachauri who, they say, has never been a mass leader, has never won an election and owes his achievements as a Rajya Sabha member, a minister at the Centre and his appointment as PCC chief to his propensity to sycophancy.

        Pachauri, no doubt, started with a distinct disadvantage as his appointment as PCC chief was made against the wishes of those who had been controlling various factions in the State Congress for decades. This he obviously could not help. Where he failed was to assess the state of affairs in the organisation and try to enlist the support of faction leaders. Whether from inexperience or from a feeling that being a nominee of Sonia Gandhi, he need not bother much about others, he faltered in the very first steps he took. He did not learn even from the pinpricks he was subjected to by certain Congress leaders immediately after he took over as the PCC president.

      Pachauri had an opportunity of making clear his intention of taking along all at the time of the constitution of the State Congress working committee. But it was a dismal failure on his part. The working committee was filled mostly with the mediocre—some of them little known for their contribution to the party work – and no attempt was made to give representation to various party factions and different regions of the State. Some of the leaders, who had somehow kept the name of the Congress party alive, also found them sidelined. Pachauri tried some patchwork later on but the damage was done.

      Then came the Betul Lok Sabha by-election, caused by the death of the BJP’s Vijay Khandelwal. Pachauri allowed it to be converted into Union Commerce minister Kamal Nath’s personal show and did not care to seek active support of others like Arjun Singh, Digvijay Singh, Jyotiraditya Scindia or even his immediate predecessor Subhash Yadav who is becoming a rallying point of the OBCs. Kamal Nath, for all his money, has never looked beyond his Chhindwara constituency and has never taken any interest in the State level politics. The inevitable result was, to the delight of Pachauri’s detractors in the party, the defeat of the Congress candidate who was the personal choice of Kamal Nath.

      The Betul defeat has made the Pachauri camp despondent. The zeal with which he had started going to the people soon after becoming PCC president is no more visible. In fact, he is hardly seen in public now. His detractors in the party are heard gleefully asking each other where is the PCC president today.

      Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly Jamuna Devi, a tribal woman in her late seventies, appears to be the only one concerned about the rejuvenation of the Congress, though she has her limitations. She has done much more than others to expose the misdeeds of chief minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan or his cabinet colleagues. She was elected MLA in 1952 when most of the present leaders were playing in diapers but she has no inhibition in cooperating with Pachauri or Ajay Singh or any other Congress leader. (She had reservations only about Subhash Yadav but it was a two-way traffic). But it appears that she is not getting the requisite support from other party leaders in her endeavours. A case in point is a recent High Court verdict.

      As is already known, Jamuna Devi’s petition to the Madhya Pradesh Lokayukta alleges that chief minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan was instrumental in granting, “illegally”, mining leases to the JP Associates and the JP Associates had gifted dumpers to Chauhan’s wife Sadhna Singh after getting those dumpers registered in Sadhna Singh’s name in a dubious manner. In the process, she had claimed, the State government had arbitrarily cancelled the mining lease of M/S Dalmia Cement (Bharat) Ltd, Delhi and issued the lease for these mines in favour of the JP Associates. The Central government had quashed the Madhya Pradesh government notification cancelling the lease of m/s Dalmia Cement and allotting it to the JP Associates. The JP Associates challenged the Centre’s order in the Madhya Pradesh High Court.

 The High Court, on April 26, upheld the Centre’s order and came down heavily on the State government for its arbitrary action. This, to some extent,confirmed Jamuna Devi’s charges of corruption against Chauhan and should have exhilarated the Congress leaders.

      But no Congress leader took notice of it. When Jamuna Devi, then on a tour of her constituency in Dhar district, returned to Bhopal, she procured a copy of the High Court judgement from Jabalpur and briefed the media about it only on May 3.