Shillong, September 20: After witnessing humiliating defeats in two back-to-back electoral battles against the ruling BJP in the last six months, Congress veteran Kamal Nath has started reviving and restructuring the party in his bastion Chhindwara.
In a bid to boost the morale of the party cadre the former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister along with his son and ex-MP Nakul Nath started participating in public meetings in their home turf around two-and-half months after the Congress lost the Amarwara bypoll on July 13.
On their visit to Chhindwara on Friday, Kamal Nath and Nakul Nath flagged-off ‘Kisan Nyay Yatra’ that began under the leadership of state Congress chief Jitu Patwari across Madhya Pradesh.
The father and son duo, who had arrived in Chhindwara on Thursday, held a series of meetings with Congress workers and leaders in different Assembly segments – Pandhurna, Sausar and Amarwara.
In these back-to-back meetings, Kamal Nath reviewed the party’s situation in his bastion.
Sources in the Congress told IANS that during these meetings, Kamal Nath also assured the party workers that Nakul Nath would be looking after the party’s activities like before.
The veteran leader also assured that the process of restructuring the party would begin soon in Chhindwara.
It all started after Kamal Nath met Congress top brass Rahul Gandhi on September 3 in New Delhi.
That meeting took place after the Congress under the leadership of Kamal Nath witnessed an embarrassing defeat in Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections in December last year.
After that meeting, Kamal Nath visited Madhya Pradesh twice in two weeks and held a series of meetings with senior party leaders, including ex-CM and Rajya Sabha MP Digvijaya Singh and some other prominent leaders in his bungalow in Bhopal.
However, Thursday was the first time the father and son visited their home turf Chhindwara after the Amarwara bye-election, which the party lost to the BJP’s Kamlesh Shah.
Incidentally, Kamlesh Shah once used to be a Kamal Nath loyalist and won two elections on the Congress’ symbol.
Kamal Nath would need to restructure the party in Chhindwara because, he has not only lost the election (Nakul Nath lost Lok Sabha) but also several of his loyalists, especially former MLA Deepak Saxena, who once used to be the most trusted person for the Nath family.
Saxena, who had even resigned as MLA for Nath in 2019 from the Chhindwara Parliamentary constituency, had shifted to the BJP ahead of the recently-concluded Lok Sabha elections, accusing Nakul Nath of disrespecting senior allies of his father. (IANS)