Bhopal: The campaigning for the tough ever by-elections in Madhya Pradesh is on full-swing now. The elections are important, as they would decide the fate of the present BJP government in the State.
Seeing the numbers stacked in Madhya Pradesh assembly presently, it seems an uphill task for Congress party which had regained power in Madhya Pradesh after 15 years in year 2018 but lost out on the opportunity soon after, mostly due to departure of own men led by senior leader Jyotiraditya Scindia.
Congress numbers in MP assembly had seen a bumpy ride in last one year and half. Starting from 114 seats after 2018 assembly polls, Congress was bolstered with another seat through veteran Kantilal Bhuria in a bypoll in Jhabua.
However, with the demise of senior MLA Banwarilal Sharma in Joura, the party returned to 114 mark, two short of magic majority figure of 116 which the party had attained with the help of four independents, two BSP MLAs and an MLA from Samajwadi Party.
The real jolt came in March when 22 MLAs left with Jyotiraditya Scindia and joined the BJP, bringing down Congress numbers to 92. With three more—Sumitra Devi Kasdekar, Pradyumn Singh Ldhi and Narayan Patel, followed them in the ruling party weeks later, the Congress was depleted to 89 seats. Following the recent demise of Biaora MLA Govardhan Dangi, the grand old party has been reduced to 88 seats in MP assembly.
While the BJP after losing Jhabua bypoll and demise of Agar MLA Manohar Untwal, still sits comfortably at 107 seats in assembly, just nine away from majority mark on its own. Still the opposition party has been oozing out confidence in the past few months and are hopeful of coming back to power.
“Ye ladai asli aur nakli Congressiyon ke beech hai, BJP ke sath nahin It’s not a fight with BJP, but a fight between real and fake Congressmen,” Congress media cell vice president Bhupendra Gupta said claiming the public is anguished with those who betrayed us and such candidates won’t get any support.
“We will return to power easily,” said Gupta urging to look at the huge crowd in Bhander in Kamal Nath’s meet despite the fact BJP implemented ‘nefarious’ agenda to malign party candidate. Congress MLA Kunal Chaudhary said the party is going all out 28-win target. Even if we fell short by some seats, our old allies with back us, he added.
BJP spokesperson Rajneesh Agrawal lambasted Congress claims saying the public will offer a fitting reply to the opposition for the massive corruption and betrayal to public in Kamal Nath government. He added that there are no issues and Shivraj government will easily cruise well beyond majority mark.
Meanwhile, the BSP, SP and four independents (all former Congressmen) who were shelved after BJP returning to power with Congress rebels, could be at the helm in case both the mainstream parties could not muster clear majority after bypolls. These seven MLAs hold crucial importance to Congress plan than BJP, which just needs nine wins out of 28 byelections.
