The Congress party is unlikely to release an early list of candidates for the upcoming Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections due for November as it might lead to further factionalism and derail the plans to induct some important BJP leaders, senior party leaders have said.
A senior Congress leader familiar with the discussions in the party over ticket distribution said that announcing the candidates early can increase factionalism within the party as there may not be consensus on one name.
“It’s difficult to get consent of all the factions on a single name until and unless there is intervention from the party high command,” said the leader.
Although the party has not publicly named any candidates, it has identified 106 candidates in the state, who have been asked to start campaign.
However, a few leaders, including Suresh Pachauri, Arun Yadav and former state minister Ajay Singh have expressed discontent over not being part of different election committees making decisions on the selection of candidates and keeping them away from the party functions. They are also unhappy over being side-lined by MP Congress president Kamal Nath over running of the party in the state.
Another senior Congress leader said Arun Yadav was visibly more upset due to the nomination of Kamleshwar Patel, another OBC face, in the party’s highest decision-making body– the Congress Working Committee (CWC).
The Working Committee was reconstituted on July 20, with at least 22 new faces in the panel.
Son of former deputy chief minister late Subhash Yadav, Arun Yadav has been side-lined since Kamal Nath replaced him as the state Congress president on May 1, 2018, said the leader mentioned above wishing not to be named.
Similarly, former state minister Ajay Singh and former Union minister Suresh Pachauri also feel marginalised in the party affairs and the trigger was their names not being there in the screening committee for selecting candidates, a third Congress leader said.
As the refused to participate in party functions and restricted themselves to their assembly constituencies, the party in a bid to placate them including their names as the special invitees in the party’s Election Screening Committee.
Another party leader said that apart from factionalism, there is a view within the party that announcing candidates early could prevent more Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders from joining the Congress ahead of the polls, especially in constituencies where the candidates are officially announced.
“As the election heats picks up in October, we expect many BJP leaders to join. And, therefore, the party will announce candidates at the right time,” the third leader said.
Prominent leaders from the ruling party who have switched over to the Congress so far include sitting MLA Birendra Rahuvanshi, former minister Deepak Joshi, former MLA Bhanwar Singh Shekhawat and Chandra Bhushan Singh Bundela.
The BJP leaders’ embracing the Congress along with hundreds of their followers created a conducive atmosphere for the party across the state whether or not these leaders were going to get party tickets for the elections.
“Congress will announce its list at the right time after taking into consideration all the aspects related to the candidates,” said state Congress spokesperson KK Mishra.
He added that the BJP had to announce its first list in a hurry to check a chaos-like situation in the party over the fact that it was going to lose the election badly.
The BJP announced its first list of 39 candidates on August 17 for seats which it did not win in 2018 resulting in its losing majority in the Assembly.
“Congress leaders are gripped with fear that if they go ahead with making the list public there will be rebellion in the party. Congress is anyway going to lose the election. Its list or no-list will not make any impact on the BJP’s prospects,” state BJP spokesperson Narendra Saluja said.
The state elections are scheduled for November to elect all 230 members of the Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly.
