What preceded Kamal Nath’s resignation as MP leader of opposition

Madhya Pradesh Congress chief Kamal Nath’s resignation as the leader of the opposition in the state assembly on Thursday comes on the heels of an incident last month. The assembly was in session and when chief minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan got up to speak, he is reported to have said: “I’m raising this issue, but the leader of the opposition is not here to listen to me”.

When reporters asked Nath for a response, he said, “Should I listen to him or should I be listening to the people of the state and workers?”

And so, two years after Nath stepped down from the chief minister’s post after losing majority in the House, he has given up his second post in the House, and will just stick to being state Congress chief.

“Elections are just 18 months away and I have work to do,” he said over the phone.

According to party functionaries familiar with the matter, Nath wrote to Congress president Sonia Gandhi two months ago seeking her approval to step down as the leader of the opposition in the house.

On Thursday, party general secretary K C Venugopal said in a statement that Nath’s resignation had been accepted and that seven-time MLA Govind Singh had been appointed as the new Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader.

Singh (70) was serving as the deputy leader of opposition and has earlier been a minister in Nath’s cabinet. He is widely seen as Nath’s choice.

Another former minister from Nath’s cabinet told HT that many other changes are expected in the state soon.

Nath’s resignation has prompted the question on whether the Congress will now insist on the “one-man-one-post” rule.

The most prominent among those who are exceptions to this rule is Member of Parliament Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, who not only is the leader of opposition in Lok Sabha but also heads the party’s West Bengal unit.

While Nath has been in the state ever since the Congress won Madhya Pradesh in 2018, reports of him taking up a “larger role” at the party’s Centre keep emerging.

In 2020, a group of 23 leaders wrote to the party leadership seeking widespread organisational reforms and fresh elections for every post. Nath was among the senior leaders who spoke to both the party’s central leadership (the Gandhis) and some of the G-23 on a possible resolution.