Madhya Pradesh Congress president Jitu Patwari said on Sunday that his party will win over 15 of the State’s 29 seats in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
During a visit to the Gwalior-Chambal region of the State with AICC general-secretary in-charge of Madhya Pradesh Jitendra Singh, Mr. Patwari said given the Congress’ vote share in last year’s State Assembly elections, the party will win more than 15 seats in the General Elections.
“With these claims (of winning all 29 seats), the BJP is challenging democracy and people’s votes. If this is their mindset, I congratulate them. We will not make any claims but show you when the results come,” said Mr. Patwari, at a press conference in Gwalior.
The BJP won 28 out of 29 seats of the State in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, while the Congress only managed to bag former chief minister and party veteran Kamal Nath’s bastion of Chhindwara, won by his son Nakul Nath. The BJP has this time claimed that it will snatch the Chhindwara seat from the grand old party and win all 29 seats in M.P.
In the Assembly polls held in November 2023, the BJP swept as many as 163 seats with the Congress shrinking to 66 seats.
Mr. Patwari, who was made the State unit president after replacing Mr. Kamal Nath after the Assembly poll rout, has been travelling across the State to lay the ground for party’s preparations and reenergise the cadre for the Lok Sabha polls.
Energising cadre
Mr. Patwari also said that meetings of coordination committees for Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra in all four Lok Sabha seats of the Gwalior-Chambal region were also held on Sunday.
Mr. Singh said discussions about the route for the 650 kilometre rally which will takes six days and various events and public meetings to be organised during the Yatra were held in the six-hour-long meeting.
Suggestions were taken from party MLAs, district unit chiefs and other senior leaders in the region, he said.
“In the meeting, we also took suggestions about candidates for the Lok Sabha polls,” said Mr. Singh, adding that booth-level workers were also consulted for their inputs.
Mr. Singh and Mr. Patwari hit out at the State’s ruling BJP over law and order and accused it of not fulfilling any of its poll promises.
Mr. Patwari said, “The Chief Minister (Mohan Yadav) is also the Home Minister of the State. But criminals are operating openly in the Gwalior-Chambal region. Women have been raped and thrown from a height.”
“The CM talks about Ram Rajya in Madhya Pradesh. Ram Rajya can’t exist where women are dishonoured in broad daylight,” he said.
