BHOPAL: State Congress president Kamal Nath has appointed 70 campaign in-charges in assembly constituencies in the past four days to pacify rebels and disgruntled party workers. Thirty more such unhappy partymen will be given charge of campaigning in constituencies, though not necessarily in the seats they aspired for party tickets.“All rebels have been placated,” said state Congress organisational vice-president Chandraprabhash Sekhar. “There are only five to six rebels who remain adamant and party might have to expel them,” he said.The list of rebels in the Congress office on Thursday morning showed only eight such names – Anurag Hazare who is contesting as Samajwadi Party (SP) candidate from Pathariya seat, Aditya Solomon contesting as independent from Jabera, Pradeep Khateek fighting as independent from Hata, Bhuvan Vikram Singh who resigned from Congress and is fighting as independent from Pawai constituency, Mahesh Patel as Gondwana Gantantra Party candidate from Maihar, BL Sarkhare as AAP candidate from Mandla, Rajesh Mahto who is now BSP candidate from Maharajpur and Akhilesh Dubey who is contesting as SP candidate from Sagar.“Congress party is much more unified than the BJP. Look at them, the BJP had to expel 52 rebels from primary membership. We have so far expelled only one Xavier Meda,” Chandraprabhash Sekhar said. On Wednesday, the party expelled former MLA Meda from the primary membership after he refused to withdraw his candidature against party candidate Dr Vikrant Bhuria from Jhabua. Meda won the 2008 elections by a margin of over 19,000 votes against BJP’s Pavesingh Pargi but lost 2013 against Shantilal Bilwal by more than 15,800 votes.The party, however, is silent on Nitin Chaturvedi who is son of senior party leader and former Rajya Sabha MP Satyavrat Chaturvedi. Nitin is contesting as SP candidate from Rajnagar assembly seat in Chhattarpur district. His father wanted party ticket for Nitin from the seat but senior leaders could not deny candidature to three-time MLA Vikram Singh Natiraja. “Nitin Chaturvedi is already contesting as SP candidate. How can the party expel him when he is no longer with us,” Chandraprabhash Sekhar said. Satyavrat Chaturvedi has openly announced he will campaign for his son, but Congress still maintains that he is party’s star campaigner.On Thursday, state PCC sent a letter of appointment to Mona Gaurav who has been made campaign chief for the Hoshangabad seat where the contest is between speaker Sitasharan Sharma of BJP and Sartaj Singh of the Congress. Similarly, Sehore district Congress general secretary Mohammad Rashid has been appointed campaign chief for Sonkutch, Hitesh Thakur, working president of Dhar district Congress, for Dhar assembly seat and Mann Singh Choudhary for Mandsaur.“Kamal Nath has accommodated those disappointed after not getting tickets into the organisation. They have been given specific duty of campaigning for the party and when the candidate wins, credit for the victory will be shared between candidate and campaign chief,” a senior PCC office-bearer said. “Till Thursday morning, 70 letters have been sent out and 30 are still to go,” he added.

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