'Not keen on becoming Congress president, I want to…': Kamal Nath

Kamal Nath said, "I talked to Rahul Gandhi and urged him to contest so that all this (ongoing uproar) could be ended. I told him things are getting complicated. But he said he does not want to become the party president."

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Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh Congress chief Kamal Nath on Wednesday said he is not keen on becoming the party president and does not want to contest the election for that post as he wishes to focus on his home state, where Assembly elections are scheduled next year. He also said that the elections for the Congress president's post are being held as Rahul Gandhi refused to take up the party's reins. "I talked to Rahul Gandhi and urged him to contest so that all this (ongoing uproar) could be ended. I told him things are getting complicated. But he said he does not want to become (the party president)," Nath told reporters in Bhopal on Wednesday in reply to a question.

"Now, when he (Gandhi) doesn't want to become (party chief), elections are being held...J P Nadda became the BJP president without any elections in that party. Let alone holding elections, the BJP didn't sought the opinion of even 10 leaders of the party before Nadda was appointed to the post," he added.

When asked why he he himself does not want to contest the polls for the top post in the party, Nath said he had gone to Delhi and told Congress president Sonia Gandhi that he would not leave Madhya Pradesh as Assembly elections are only 12 months away.

"I will not take this responsibility because this will take away my focus from Madhya Pradesh. I don't want to divert my focus from Madhya Pradesh," the state Congress chief said.

The new AICC chief will have to first focus on Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh, where elections are scheduled soon, and there will be a need to prepare a strategy for every state, the former Madhya Pradesh chief minister said. The Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh are due in November next year.