Confident of winning the upcoming Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh with a clear majority, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Friday asserted that the “injustice, atrocities and misrule” of the BJP government will come to an end.
Mallikarjun Kharge made the remarks after a meeting of the Central Election Committee (CEC) convened to discuss the choice of candidates for the Madhya Pradesh elections.
“In Madhya Pradesh, youth, women, Dalits, tribals and backward classes are going to get justice in a few days. There will be a complete end to the BJP’s injustice, atrocities, and misrule of the last 18 years,” the Congress president wrote on X while briefing on the CEC meeting.
In a subtle referring to 2020 political crisis in Madhya Pradesh, in which the Congress government was toppled in the state after Jyotiraditya Scindia, the party’s trusted leader, switched his allegiance to the BJP, along with over a dozen MLAs, he said, “This time, the public won’t allow an ‘undemocratic’ BJP government to come to power in Madhya Pradesh through the back door.”
“This time around the traitors will get a befitting reply from the voters. The Congress party is heading for a full majority,” added Kharge.
Notably, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi predicted that the party will win 150 Assembly seats in Madhya Pradesh on the lines of the Karnataka polls held in May this year.
Meanwhile, Madhya Pradesh Congress president and former chief minister Kamal Nath, who was also present at the CEC meeting, informed that they deliberated on the names of candidates for the 60 Assembly seats.
Talking to reporters at the Congress headquarters, Nath said, “We held discussions for 60 (Assembly) seats. A list of candidates will be announced after the shradh (season for mourning the dead). We are running against time to meet the October 15 deadline for the release of the list.”
Elections to 230-member Madhya Pradesh Assembly will be held in a single phase on November 17. The counting of votes will be held on December 3 along with four other states – Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Telangana and Mizoram.
The Assembly polls are expected to witness a direct contest between the BJP and the Congress.
In the 2018 Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections, the BJP won 109 seats against the Congress’s 114. The ruling party is hopeful of retaining power in the state.