Madhya Pradesh: 'Issueless' Congress concocting falsehoods, says PM Modi

Elections for the 230-member Madhya Pradesh Assembly are scheduled for November 28 while counting of votes will be taken up on December 11.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi. (Image: PTI)

BHOPAL: Accusing the Congress of concocting "falsehoods" to gain power in Madhya Pradesh, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said it has lost ground in the state with no issue helping the party. "The Congress has lost its ground in Madhya Pradesh. They don't have any agenda for development. It seems, nothing is left for them to oppose us. They have no issues and in the lack of issues they are concocting falsehood. "The development work by our government has frustrated them and that is why they are talking nonsense," he said during his interaction with booth-level party workers of Hoshangabad in election-bound Madhya Pradesh. "Sometimes there are fake news and sometimes there are misleading photographs. In fact, Shivraj Singh Chouhan's government has done so much of development work that the opposition can't raise their finger at it. It has turned Madhya Pradesh from a "BIMARU state to Bemisal state" (from a sick state to an incomparable state)," the Prime Minister said. In July this year, Congress veteran and former Chief Minister Digvijaya Singh had posted a photo of a bridge and tweeted that it was the pillar of the overbridge on the Subhash Nagar Railway Crossing. Raising questions on the quality of work, Singh had said that the construction of the bridge was not even complete and cracks can be seen on the pillar. Later, it was pointed out that the cracked pillar was of a bridge in Rawalpindi and an old one at that. Recently, ahead of Congress President Rahul Gandhi's visit to Madhya Pradesh, state Congress chief Kamal Nath took to Twitter for lambasting the condition of the roads in Madhya Pradesh with a picture showing a man folding the upper layer of a road made up of tar while some bemused kids watched. It was later found that the image was originally tweeted in 2016 by Rifat Alam, a Bangladeshi user, who criticized the Bangladeshi government for the poor condition of the roads. During his interaction with party workers in Chatra, the Prime Minister also took a dig at Rahul Gandhi without taking his name. As soon as one of the workers, while putting his question, took his name Rajkumar Sahu, the Prime Minister asked: Are you really a Rajkumar (Prince)? Nowadays, we need to be very careful with "Rajkumar". "I am not that Rajkumar born with a golden spoon," replied Sahu which had the Prime Minister laughing. Elections for the 230-member MP Assembly are scheduled for November 28 while counting of votes will be taken up on December 11. Pre-poll surveys have predicted a close battle in Madhya Pradesh but are giving the Congress a clear edge in the 230 seats up for grabs. A recent survey conducted by ABP News could ring alarm bells for Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan who is attempting to win a fourth term. As per the ABP News' survey, BJP is likely to win 108 seats while the Congress is set to bag 122 seats. Other parties in the battle are seen drawing a blank. The opinion poll may raise the morale of the Congress party which has made incremental changes in the leadership in the state in the last few months. The party is leaving no stones unturned to make a mighty comeback after a string of back to back losses. The vote share percentage is, however, very close between the two parties here. BJP’s vote share is 41.5% while 42.2% is of the Congress. BJP has won 165 seats in 2013 while Congress had just won 58. (With inputs from IANS)