MP Assembly polls: Congress set to fight INDIA bloc allies in 92 of 230 seats
Bhopal: With Congress shying away from sharing seats with its INDIA bloc allies in Madhya Pradesh in the November 17 assembly seats, the party is poised to lock horns with them in 92 out of 230 seats.
The INDIA bloc constituents -Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Samajwadi Party (SP) and JD (U), have decided to go it alone in the ensuing assembly polls in Madhya Pradesh after Congress spurned their offer for poll tie-up with them.
While AAP fielded its candidates in 70 seats, SP and JD (U) declared their nominees for 43 seats and 10 seats respectively.
Significantly, seven out of the 92 seats were won by Congress in the 2018 assembly elections by a margin between 121 votes- 1234 votes.
Interestingly, Congress had secured 114 seats, two short of majority, in the 2018 assembly elections, forcing the party to form government in the state with the help of two Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MLAs, one SP legislator and four independents.
The Kamal Nath government however could last barely 15 months after 22 Congress MLAs resigned from the party and joined BJP in March 2020, paving the way for BJP to return to power in the state.
The seats which were won by Congress by less than 1,240 votes in the 2018 assembly elections were Gwalior (South) (121 votes), Jabalpur (North) (578 votes), Damoh (798 votes), Rajnagar (732 votes), Chandla (1,177 votes), Nagod (1,234 votes), and Indore-five (1,133 votes).
Another seat, Gunnur, was also won by the party by a narrow margin of 1,984 votes.
According to poll analyst Yogesh Thakur, SP has its influence in at least four assembly seats in the Chitrakoot region bordering Uttar Pradesh and AAP has been able to create its base in some assembly constituencies in the Vindhya region.
SP fielded its candidates in 52 seats in the 2018 assembly elections and won one seat.
AAP had fielded around a dozen candidates and drawn a blank in the last polls.
But, the party was able to poll 0.66 per cent of votes then.
“Madhya Pradesh is a bipolar state with BJP and Congress being the two principal contenders for power. We do not want other parties to gain a foothold in ‘our bastion’ in the state”, a senior Congress functionary told this newspaper while explaining his party’s stand against tie-ups with its INDIA bloc allies in November polls.
