Bhopal: To ensure victory of Congress nominee Vivek Tankha from Madhya Pradesh in the biennial polls to the Rajya Sabha, former Union Minister Kamalnath is fighting from the front. In his leadership the whole Congress seems to be united. Nath has one-to-one discussion with all the party legislators in past two days. The polling for the biennial polls will be held on Saturday at State assembly. Senior Congress leaders and former Union Ministers Kamal Nath and Sushil Kumar Shinde are camping in the State capital to ensure the victory of Tankha, who is short of just one vote to sail through in the polls.

A lunch was on at the posh hotel in the city where Congress MLAs were present. Besides four BSP legislators also took part in it. Soon after the arrival of Nath last evening here, he interacted with all the MLAs one-to-one at the state Congress office and also took part in the dinner at the party headquarters. Nath also hosted a dinner for Congress and other legislators at his official residence here at Shyamla Hills area.

“Everything is going on perfectly and as planned. Mock polling will also be conducted so that legislators will not commit any error in exercising their franchise in the crucial elections,” State Congress President, Arun Yadav told. The Congress camp which is short of just one vote is confident of the victory of Tankha as Bahujan Samaj Party has already issued a whip to its four MLAs to vote in favour of him. The Assembly has a total strength of 230 MLAs. BJP had 166 members followed by Congress 57, BSP 4 and Independents 3.

However, with the death of BJP’s Nepanagar MLA Rajendra Dadu on Thursday and the Supreme Court’s decision barring another saffron party MLA Rajendra Meshram from voting, the party has 164 votes in its kitty now.