The party’s major focus would be on issues related to women and farmers.
NEW DELHI: The Congress in Madhya Pradesh is planning to contest the upcoming Assembly elections, to be held later this year, on the lines of Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka campaigning model, where its major focus would be on issues related to women and farmers.
However, senior leaders in the party say that every state needs a different response to the different problems they have, and thus Madhya Pradesh will run its election campaign according to the needs of people, and will focus on a host of issues. A Congress leader said, “We will mostly focus on women and farmers.”
The party has also roped in poll strategist Sunil Kanugolu, who had earlier contributed to Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra, to help it shape its campaign for the upcoming Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh.
A party leader said that the Bharat Jodo Yatra remained in the state for around 15 days which drew crowds in large numbers and left a mark among the people. The memory of the yatra among people would for sure have an impact on the electoral gains of the party.”
Moreover, party leaders have given enough hints that as the elections draw closer, they will start tightening their narrative against the Chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on a host of issues. A Senior Congress leader said, “Our plan is to come circling around the current CM of the state. We have marked out well how we are going to contest this election. Last time, we were just short of two seats in getting a majority. Now, there is anti-incumbency as well as there is a stronger Congress in the state, which will help the party attain the magic numbers.”
More importantly, there are currently 17 leaders who have been given serious responsibility of overseeing different parts of the state in order to manage the affairs on the ground effectively.
In addition to that, former chief minister of the state, Digvijaya Singh, has been given the responsibility of those constituencies where the party has not been able to win in the last 25 years.
There are around 66 Assembly constituencies where the Congress have not won even once in the last 25 years.
Mithun Singh Ahirwar, Congress spokesperson, told The Sunday Guardian, “We have two expectations. One, we have not won for a long time and we want to win them and draw support from people from these places. Second, there has been a lot of complaints about local BJP goons who are troubling our people. We wish to form a committee which would advise and report us the atrocities done on our workers. Our workers must feel that they are safe with the Congress.”
In the 2018 Assembly polls, the Congress had lost the election with a razor-thin margin.
Being short of only two seats, the party had somehow stitched up an alliance to form the government with support from the BSP. The state has 230 Assembly seats.
According to party leaders, there are around 60 seats which the Congress lost with less than 5,000 votes defeat margin. A Congress leader said, “There are several seats which we lost by just less than 2,000 votes and this time, we will hopefully be able to pull off a resounding victory on such seats.”