On Friday, the Congress party convened a Central Election Committee (CEC) meeting at the AICC (All India Congress Committee) headquarters in Delhi in preparation for the Madhya Pradesh assembly elections. The meeting was attended by Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, MPs Rahul Gandhi and KC Venugopal, and other party leaders.
According to sources, the Congress is expected to finalize the initial list of roughly 140 candidates for the next assembly elections during the meeting, and the list is expected to be announced on Sunday. Following the CEC meeting, the party will hold a screening committee meeting to consider the remaining names of candidates for the assembly elections.
Madhya Pradesh will hold assembly elections on November 17. The state will elect legislators from 230 Assembly seats through the polls. The election would be held in one phase in the state, with the results announced on December 3.
In the 2018 assembly elections, the Congress won 114 seats with a 41.5 percent vote share, while the BJP won 109 seats with a 41.6 percent vote share. The Congress won the recent state assembly elections, and senior leader Kamal Nath was sworn in as chief minister.
Nonetheless, a political upheaval rocked the state in 2020, after the then Congressman Jyotiraditya Scindia, along with 22 loyalist MLAs, switched over to the saffron camp.
The Congress government fell after being reduced to a minority and the BJP formed the government, with Shivraj Singh Chouhan returning as chief minister.
Earlier today MP CM Shivraj Chouhan launched an attack on Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi claiming that the Congress was making false promises to the people.
“The Congress is lying for votes. Earlier too (during 2018 assembly polls), Rahul Gandhi promised that all loans would be waived within 10 days. They (Congress)were forcing them (Rahul and Priyanka) to make false promises. This was Congress’ policy of getting votes by confusing the people.”