As the Madhya Pradesh Assembly election draws closer, the BJP is intensifying its efforts to highlight alleged divisions within the Congress party regarding the choice for the Chief Ministerial position. In response, the Congress has refuted these claims and maintained that their leader has already been decided.
Both the BJP and Congress, as national political parties, have geared up their cadres for an intense and fierce political battle to secure the heartland of Hindi-speaking states as the election approaches.
In addition to strengthening their election preparations with strategies, manifestos, social media campaigns, IT cells, election war rooms, and visits from central leadership, a psychological war to undermine the opposition has also commenced from both sides.
Over the past few days, the state BJP unit has targeted the Congress, asserting that the opposition is "divided into factions" and lacks unanimity in endorsing Kamal Nath as the Chief Ministerial face.
Since the previous Assembly election in 2018, Kamal Nath has been leading the state Congress unit in Madhya Pradesh and the party successfully returned to power after a 15-year hiatus but due to defections led by Jyotiraditya Scindia's factions, the government collapsed in 15 months.
Narottam Mishra, the Home Minister of Madhya Pradesh and poised to be the next CM face of BJP in the state, claimed that Kamal Nath has declared himself as the chief ministerial candidate, while others in his party are not in agreement.
"Kamal Nath has declared himself as the 'Swayambhu' (self-proclaimed) Chief Minister, but his party colleagues have not. Rahul Gandhi has also avoided commenting on Kamal Nath as the Chief Ministerial face. Digvijaya Singh, unable to express it directly, conveyed his view through Govind Singh, the Leader of Opposition. This clearly indicates factionalism within the Congress," Mishra said during a press briefing on Wednesday.
The controversy began after former Congress president Rahul Gandhi, following a meeting with a group of Congress leaders from Madhya Pradesh in New Delhi, stated, "We are going to repeat the Karnataka model in Madhya Pradesh. We will win 150 seats."
However, he refrained from explicitly addressing whether Kamal Nath would be the face of the Chief Minister in Madhya Pradesh, reiterating instead the goal of winning 150 seats.
Notably, on May 29, senior Congress leaders from Madhya Pradesh met with party chief Mallikarjun Kharge at the AICC headquarters in Delhi to discuss preparations for the upcoming Assembly elections in the state, attended by Rahul Gandhi as well.
Responding to questions from the press after the meeting, Digvijaya Singh, a senior Congress leader and the Leader of Opposition in Madhya Pradesh, stated, "Some people are taking my name too. Supporters want their respective leaders to become Chief Minister. Some are taking my name, but I am not the leader, I am a party worker."
Subsequently, BJP leaders, especially Narottam Mishra, seized upon this and accused the opposition of being plagued by factionalism. However, Digvijaya Singh, a former Chief Minister and current Rajya Sabha MP, has consistently maintained that Kamal Nath will be the Chief Ministerial face in Madhya Pradesh.
Amidst the renewed debate on this issue, Digvijay Singh asserted, "99 percent of the people in Madhya Pradesh want to see Kamal Nath as the Chief Minister. There should be no doubt about it."
(With inputs from IANS)
