Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh slammed the Congress party on Saturday for putting too much emphasis on the future of Nakul Nath and Jaivardhan Singh in the upcoming state assembly elections. Chouhan's remarks came as the Congress revealed its ticket distribution for the upcoming elections, which are set to take place next month.
"Congress has made this election about the future of Nakul Nath and Jaivardhan Singh. It seems that in Madhya Pradesh, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge has delegated the responsibility of ticket distribution to Kamal Nath. After obtaining this responsibility, Kamal Nath is prioritising Nakul Nath's candidature, while on the other side, Digvijaya Singh is promoting Jaivardhan Singh," Chouhan was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
Furthermore, Chouhan stated that Kamal Nath was in charge of the ticket distribution process, appearing to be unresponsive to input from other leaders in the INC alliance, such as Mallikarjun Kharge, Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, and Priyanka Gandhi, who were focusing on establishing their own candidates.
Congress Workers Burn Effigies In Protest Over OBC Candidate Tickets:
In response to Chouhan's remarks, Congress spokesperson Abbas Hafeez defended the party's candidate selection process, claiming that the party "carefully selected its candidates based on polls and selected the most suitable individuals for the upcoming assembly elections". Hafeez went on to say that the Congress candidates and party organisation are united and ready to run in the elections under the leadership of their state president.
"CM Shivraj Singh Chauhan should worry about his party, which is not able to declare their candidates even till now. The Congress party prepared its list based on the survey and made the best persons among them as its candidates for the upcoming assembly polls," Hafeez told ANI.
Subsequently, in a separate incident, state Congress Vice President Damodar Singh Yadav and his supporters burned effigies of former Chief Minister Digvijaya Singh and his son, Jaivardhan Singh, outside the state Congress office in Bhopal.
Yadav accused the father-son duo of hindering the party's representation of the poor and backward communities and attempting to damage the image of Congress MP Rahul Gandhi, ANI reported.
According to the report, Yadav had earlier requested 126 tickets for candidates from the backward class in Madhya Pradesh but claimed that the party allocated only 55 tickets. He expressed disappointment at the party's allocation of tickets to those with smaller populations while underserving the larger population of the backward class in the state.
According to the report, Yadav later announced his resignation from the party and stated his intention to run for 15 seats in the upcoming assembly elections. He did not say whether he would form a new political party or join an existing one.
The assembly polls in Madhya Pradesh are set for November 17, with vote counting scheduled for December 3.