Congress meet gathers poll feedback, Nath claims party's return to power in MP
Bhopal: Congress on Sunday held a meeting of party candidates, fielded in the outgoing assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, to gather feedback from them on its performance in the polls and impart them tips to guard against any attempt to tamper with the EVMs.
State Congress president and former chief minister Kamal Nath addressed the meeting digitally, saying that his assessment has indicated the party's return to power in Madhya Pradesh.
“The feedback I have received is very encouraging for the party. We are returning to power in the state with a comfortable majority”, he said.
However, absence of senior Congress leaders in the crucial meeting of the party has raised eyebrows with BJP taking a jibe at the grand old party over it.
“Congress is claiming that the party is returning to power in the state. But, senior leaders of the party such as former chief ministers Mr Nath and Digvijay Singh, Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Dr Govind Singh, former Union ministers Arun Yadav and Suresh Pachouri were found missing in the meeting.
The development sounds contrary to the claim by Congress to bounce back to power in the state in the last week’s polls”, BJP spokesman Narendra Saluja said.
Mr Saluja has particularly taken note of Mr Nath’s absence in the meeting saying that the party protocol has demanded his presence in the meeting because he is one of the candidates fielded by the party in the polls.
When contacted, a senior Congress leader said that both Mr Nath and Mr Singh are currently away in Delhi and Telangana respectively on party’s assignments.
While Mr Nath is currently visiting Delhi in connection with party affairs, Mr Singh is busy campaigning for the party in Telangana, the senior Congress functionary said, unwilling to be quoted.
The party’s poll candidates and agents were given training on how to guard against tampering of EVMs during the counting of votes on December three.
Earlier, the party’s candidates have furnished details to the leadership identifying the polling booths and the sealed EVMs by providing their numbers so that the numbers can be matched when the seals of the EVMs will be broken before the counting of votes begins.
