Ahead of Madhya Pradesh bypolls, Congress intensifies social media campaign | Latest News India - Hindustan Times
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Ahead of Madhya Pradesh bypolls, Congress intensifies social media campaign

Hindustan Times, Bhopal | ByRanjan| Edited by Sabir Hussain
Jun 03, 2020 07:46 PM IST

The Congress has stepped up its social media campaign amid reports that poll strategist Prashant Kishor has refused to work with the party for the bypolls.

Win an eye on the bye-elections to 24 assembly seats, the Congress unit in Madhya Pradesh has intensified its social media campaign to make up for the lack of physical campaign in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Kamal Nath’s Congress government in Madhya Pradesh fell in March after 22 MLAs resigned.(HT FILE PHOTO)
Kamal Nath’s Congress government in Madhya Pradesh fell in March after 22 MLAs resigned.(HT FILE PHOTO)

The Congress has stepped up its efforts amid reports that poll strategist Prashant Kishor has refused to work for the party.

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The Election Commission of India (ECI) is yet to announce dates of the bye-elections which are supposed to be held by September this year.

On Wednesday, the party circulated a video clip on Kamal Nath with a recital of a verse in the background to highlight qualities of his leadership and underline his commitment to fulfilling his dream for development of Madhya Pradesh.

Another video posted on social media shows chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan talking of the then Congress government’s earmarking a sum of Rs 6,000 crore for farm loan waiver whereas. Chouhan had earlier accused the then Congress government of not keeping its word to waive farmers’ loans.

On Tuesday, political strategist Prashant Kishor told a news channel that Kamal Nath and Punjab chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh had approached him to take over the campaign for the bye-elections but ‘he had not accepted the offer as he was not inclined to take Congress’ work in bits and pieces’.

A state Congress leader who didn’t want to be named said, “It’s true that the party was in touch with Kishor but the party didn’t depend on him entirely to push its election campaign. We have been preparing for the bypolls for the past over two months since the 22 Congress MLAs resigned. I can’t say how the presence of Kishor would have made a difference in our election campaign.”

State Congress spokesperson Abhay Dubey said, “I can’t comment on Prashant Kishor episode as I am not aware of it. But I can say that we have already launched our campaign for the by-polls and betrayal of the 22 ex-Congress MLAs to the party and to people in their constituencies is our main issue that we are raising.”

The 230-member Legislative Assembly currently has 206 members out of which 107 are BJP lawmakers. The Congress has 92 members. There are four independents, one Samajwadi Party and three BSP MLAs who are supporting the BJP government. The majority mark at present is 104. BJP needs to win at least nine seats to reach the figure of 116 for a majority in the House on its own without support of any other MLA from outside.

To deny the BJP the chance of continuing in power Congress will have to win at least 16 seats and then have the support of all non-BJP MLAs, a goal which will be tough for the party to achieve if there is no massive undercurrent in its favour, said another Congress leader.

Dubey said he was confident that the party would win all the seats.

“The biggest factor in our favour is that people have not forgiven the ex-MLAs and the fight is going to take place between these ex-MLAs if they get tickets from BJP and people themselves who are eager to teach them a lesson. That’s why we will win all the seats convincingly,” he said.

The BJP has rubbished the Congress’ optimism saying it has nothing to show for development of Madhya Pradesh.

“Congress lost its opportunity to do something for people as the then Congress government’s major focus during its 15-month rule was on running a transfer-posting industry. Major worry in Congress is how to face people during bypolls when its government neglected development across the state and was further busy with glamorous programmes like International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) award function that couldn’t be held,” state BJP spokesperson Rajneesh Agrawal said.

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