Madhya Pradesh Congress to have unity show on Friday

NEW DELHI: Congress is set to put up a grand 'unity show' in Bhopal on Friday, to resuscitate a faction-ridden state unit in Madhya Pradesh. In what seems like the first attempt by newly-appointed Pradesh Congress Committee chief Kantilal Bhuria to curb factionalism, the party will get all Union ministers from the state on a common platform to send a message that they stand united. The party unit has managed to get leaders representing the major factions to agree to attend the grand rally planned in the state capital.

Former Chief Minister Digvijaya Singh, Chhindwara MP and Union Urban Development Minister Kamal Nath, Guna MP and Minister of State for Commerce Jyotiraditya Scindia, Khandwa MP and Minister of state for agriculture and food processing Arun Yadav and former state unit president Suresh Pachauri will all be seen together at the dais on Friday.

All the leaders will fly together from Delhi on Friday morning. To portray a picture of unity, the leaders will go together from the airport in a procession to the Pradesh Congress Committee office. They would then head for the venue of the rally.

This is the first 'unity show,' since 2008 when all the leaders would be seen together. After Pachauri took over the reins of the party in Madhya Pradesh, there was a rally in Nath's constituency Chhindwara in August right before the assembly elections.

However, what was planned as a grand show to portray that all the leaders were ready to work together for the elections turned into an attempt to showcase Nath as a chief minister probable. Pachauri just couldn't turn the fortunes of the party and Congress suffered a bitter defeat in 2008 elections.

Since then, Congress has had no presence in MP and has consistently lost its vote base. The party has tried to experiment with caste equations once again by replacing Pachauri with Bhuria, a tribal leader.