An extreme level of arrogance and the autocratic style of functioning of Madhya Pradesh Congress president Kamal Nath are said to be the main reasons for the party's debacle in the state that some months before the assembly elections appeared to be headed for a change of government. 

Newsdrum spoke to several Congress leaders from Madhya Pradesh to find out how the grand old party lost the plot in the slog overs.

All of them were unanimous in claiming that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was in the doldrums at the beginning of the election process with chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan facing twin factors of anti-incumbency and fatigue of 18 years. 

According to these leaders, the entire election management and preparedness of the party was in the hands of Kamal Nath's personal staff who played a key role in ticket distribution. 

Some of the examples cited by them are:

His close aide Praveen Kakkar manipulated the candidate selection process to give ticket to his relative Dharmesh Ghai from Maihar. Ghai lost by nearly 21,000 votes. 

Kamal Nath's strategist and Man Friday Imroz Khan insisted on giving ticket to sitting legislator Suneel Saraf from Kotma despite negative surveys against him. He too lost the polls by over 22,000 votes. 

Kamal Nath's another Man Friday Mukesh Jat is said to have played a vital role in giving ticket to Ajay Balram Singh Patel from Seoni-Malwa and he ended up losing by over 36,000 votes. There were allegations of financial dealings regarding his candidature. 

Similarly, the Congress leaders further claimed, the selection process was manoeuvred to accommodate former minister KP Singh 'Kakka Joo' from Shivpuri in place of Virendra Raghuvanshi who had come from the BJP. Kakka Joo had last time contested from Pichore from where Arvind Singh Lodhi was given the ticket this time. The BJP won both the seats. While Kakka Joo lost by over 43,000 votes, Lodhi was defeated by over 21,000 votes.