The Congress party, which was dethroned from power in Madhya Pradesh by a BJP-led coup which had the support of former senior Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia and his loyalists, has not been quite able to pick up itself and restore order in the state ranks, as the party acts in a manner which displays how it has completely given up on the state, with no fighting spirit remaining in the Congress’ state leaders any longer. The Madhya Pradesh bypolls, which are scheduled to be held soon, is seeing an aggressive BJP already gearing up to fight on all of the 27 seats which will be up for grabs, even when it really requires only 9 to consolidate its present power.
The bypolls to the Madhya Pradesh Assembly are all set to be conducted simultaneously with the Bihar state elections sometime in November. The assembly seats were rendered vacant after the resignation of Congress MLA’s loyal to Jyotiraditya Scindia earlier this year, after which they joined the BJP. This has necessitated bypolls to the 27 seats in Madhya Pradesh’s Assembly. Scindia is now a Rajya Sabha MP on a BJP ticket from Madhya Pradesh.
Congress is required to win all 27 seats if it wants to stage a comeback in the state, which is a near impossibility. One would expect that the party, facing losses, humiliation and rebellion in one state after the other will at least put up a fight against the BJP, but it is Kamal Nath alone who is struggling to keep the Congress afloat in the state. He is having no support from the state leadership of the party, which is in shambles after the ouster of the Congress government earlier this year.
Kamal Nath has roped in Sachin Pilot for campaigning in Madhya Pradesh, a man whose own future in the party remains under question, and who, in the near future will most certainly quit the Congress. Similarly, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is also said to have roadshows scheduled in the state in the run-up to the bypolls, but her performance in the Uttar Pradesh state elections, while in a pre-poll alliance with the Samajwadi Party, were not impressive at all, to say the least.
Therefore, Congress is visibly not interested to put up a fight against the BJP in the state. Meanwhile, Shivraj Singh Chauhan has gone to the extent of calling himself a ‘temporary Chief Minister’ till the results of the bypolls, giving the BJP a majority on its own are not declared. To ensure the same, the Chief Minister, along with the entire state machinery of the saffron party has taken to campaign for the assembly seats up for grabs, and are well poised to win handsomely later this year.