Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who is on a day-long visit to the poll-bound Madhya Pradesh on Monday, performed 'puja' at the banks of the Narmada river in Jabalpur.
BHOPAL — With five months left for the next Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra launched the poll campaign on Monday from Jabalpur with five promises on the line of Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka, where it won recently.
Also known as ‘Mahakaushal’, the Jabalpur region is turning out to be the centre of power politics.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) played it’s masterstroke with releasing the first instalment of the newly launched ‘Ladli Behna Yojana’ from Jabalpur on June 10, and the opposition Congress is all set to kick-start it’s campaign with a mega roadshow.
The MP Congress led by seasoned leader Kamal Nath has prepared a plan to counter the BJP’s women centric financial scheme in the name of ‘Nari Samman Yojana’ along with cooking gas at subsidised rate of Rs 500 and electricity at cheaper rate to all kinds of consumers. As these three schemes are women centric, Priyanka Gandhi will make an appeal for women to support the party.
As the Mahakaushal and Vindhya regions were untouched by Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra, therefore, the party has decided to launch its poll campaign from Jabalpur, which holds significance due to its substantial tribal voter population. In the previous Assembly polls held in 2018, the Congress secured victory in 11 out of the 13 Scheduled Tribe reserved seats in the eight-district division.
Senior Supreme Court lawyer and Rajya Sabha MP Vivek Tankha said, “Priyaka Gandhi’s rally in Jabalpur will also benefit the Congress in the neighbouring Vindhya and Bundelkhand regions. Notably, the ruling BJP has bagged 24 out of the 30 Assembly seats in 2018, the Congress is striving hard to re-strengthen its feet in the region.
Madhya Pradesh is divided into six regions, namely Mahakoshal, Gwalior-Chambal, Central India, Nimar-Malwa, Vindhya Pradesh and Bundelkhand. The Mahakoshal region, also known as Jabalpur division, comprises the districts of Jabalpur, Katni, Seoni, Narsinghpur, Balaghat, Mandla, Dindori, and Chhindwara, with a total of 38 Assembly seats.
In the previous Assembly elections, the Congress secured victory in 24 of these seats, while the BJP won 13. Additionally, one seat was won by an Independent candidate. However, in the 2013 polls, the BJP emerged victorious in 24 seats, leaving the Congress with only 13 wins.
The Congress’s success in Mahakoshal during the 2018 elections enabled them to form a government in Madhya Pradesh, with Kamal Nath as the Chief Minister. However, the government collapsed in March 2020 when MLAs loyal to Jyotiraditya Scindia defected to the BJP.
Meanwhile, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who is on a day-long visit to the poll-bound Madhya Pradesh on Monday, performed ‘puja’ at the banks of the Narmada river in Jabalpur.
She was welcomed by the party’s state unit chief, Kamal Nath and Rajya Sabha MP Vivek Tankha at the Jabalpur airport, where from the convoy drove towards the Gwarighat on river Narmada.
Attacking he BJP government in Madhya Pradesh, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said in Jabalpur that Chief Minister Shivraj Singh’s ‘scams list is longer than Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s abuses.’
While addressing a mammoth gathering in Jabalpur, where she started the party’s poll campaign for Assembly elections later this year, the Congress leader said in the 220 days of the Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led BJP government, a total of 225 scams were reported in Madhya Pradesh.
“This is what the BJP government did in the three years after toppling the Congress government in a conspiracy. You (BJP) had toppled our government and came back into power, but what you did in the last three years. One after another scam, unemployment at high level, this is what the BJP did,” Priyanka said.
Priyanka’s rally in Jabalpur also indicated that the Congress will corner the ruling BJP highlighting scams, especially alleged corruption in Mahakal Lok corridor project.
Like in 2018, the then Congress President Rahul Gandhi had promised to wave off farmers loans, and the party under the leadership of Kamal Nath had managed to return to power after 15 years gap, Priyanka sounded the poll bugles with offering financial scheme of Rs 1500 per month, LPG cylinder at subsidised rate of Rs 500 along with cheaper electricity.
Worth mentioning that the Congress promised to provide Rs 1500 to women (with certain conditions) under its proposed scheme ‘Nari Samman Yojana’ to counter the BJP’s ‘Ladli Behna Yojana’ launched by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan recently. Similarly, subsidised cooking gas will counter Prime Minuter Narendra Modi’s flagship ‘Ujjawala Yojana’ launched in May 2016.
Besides these, the Congress also made another major announcement for implementing the old pension scheme (OPS) to gain support of state government employees and their families in the coming elections. The cheaper electricity is akin to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) announced in its debut election in 2013 and since then it maintained the same in states it contested the elections. — IANS
