New Delhi: Voters in poll-bound Madhya Pradesh are angry with the BJP for "stealing" the Congress government in 2020 and will speak their mind through the ballot, senior Congress leader Jitendra Singh said on Saturday.
“The voters in MP are angry with the BJP which stole our government in 2020. The mandate in 2018 polls was for the Kamal Nath government which did some good work during the short stint it had in power. The BJP then engineered a defection in our party which led to the fall of the Congress government in 2020. There is a strong undercurrent of anti-BJP sentiment due to that incident among the MP electorate and they will speak their mind through the ballot,” Jitendra Singh, who is also Chairman of AICC Screening Committee for MP, told ETV Bharat.
“The Madhya Pradesh BJP is in a panic as it has sensed its defeat in the polls and is therefore resorting to petty politics like lodging 41 FIRs against our leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra who is highlighting corruption in the state government. They came to power through corruption and indulged in more corruption later on. The move by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan to induct three new ministers today is a reflection of that panic. Such tokenism is not going to help the BJP when the polls are just a few months away,” he said.
The AICC functionary claimed that the Congress is going to come back to power in MP and said that ticket distribution would play a key in the party’s victory. "I will be in Bhopal for five days from Sept. 2 to review all the 230 assembly seats. Ticket distribution would be crucial to our win and to meeting the target of 150 seats set by former president Rahul Gandhi. I will obtain feedback on each seat from a cross-section of workers and leaders alike. Tickets would not go automatically to our sitting MLAs and renomination would take place only based on the performance of the lawmakers,” said Singh.
The AICC functionary said that though a lot of surveys are being conducted by the party leaders to identify the most suitable candidates, the winnability of the potential ticket seekers would be the deciding factor in the state. “As per the guidelines of our leader Rahul Gandhi, the focus would always remain on fielding more young leaders and women candidates. In case there are two very good candidates for a seat, the preference would be given to the young face,” said Singh.
The Screening Committee head acknowledged that there was a rush of ticket seekers in MP but said that the list of names suggested by the state unit appeared to be balanced. “Around 500 people have met me over the past few days to claim that they should get the ticket. Such things happen during poll time and it shows there is a rush for Congress tickets.
The state unit too has sent its suggestions and I can make out from their list that it is fairly balanced. The suggestions have adequate social and regional representation. Of course, caste equations too need to be balanced but my main criteria would be the winnability of the ticket aspirant,” said Singh.
