Assembly elections live: Madhya Pradesh Congress president Kamal Nath during the Central Election Committee meeting to finalise candidates for Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections, in New Delhi, Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023. (PTI)Assembly Elections in India 2023 Highlights: Randeep Surjewala, the Congress’ Madhya Pradesh in-charge, on Saturday virtually endorsed state unit president Kamal Nath as the party’s CM candidate ahead of the Assembly elections due later this year. Asked about the party’s chief ministerial face for the Madhya Pradesh elections after a meeting of the Congress’ Central Election Committee at the AICC headquarters, Surjewala said, “Kamal Nath is president of Madhya Pradesh Congress and whoever is president of the Pradesh Congress, that person is naturally the face of the Congress.”
In other news, Madhya Pradesh minister Yashodhara Raje Scindia’s announcement that she would not be contesting the upcoming elections has triggered speculations if her Shivpuri seat is being vacated for her nephew and Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia. Addressing a gathering in Shivpuri, she said that time has passed and that a new generation should come forward. The move follows a letter she had written in August to the BJP top brass about her decision not to contest the elections due this year-end.
With Election Commison set to announce poll dates anytime now, Union Minister Piyush Goyal on Sunday stressed that BJP's face is only lotus and all of them shared one ideology of making India a developed nation.
"In every election, our face is Lotus...all of us share one ideology that is to make India develop and fulfil dreams of every countryman..." he told reporters in Madhya Pradesh's Neemuch on Sunday.
He was responding to queries about the party's CM face in Madhya Pradesh. BJP has not announced any CM face for the polls till now in the state. Ahead of the assembly election in Madhya Pradesh, the BJP and Congress leaders have intensified their rallies in the state. (PTI)
Madhya Pradesh minister Yashodhara Raje Scindia’s announcement that she would not be contesting the forthcoming Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections has triggered speculations if her Shivpuri seat is being vacated for her nephew and Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia.
Addressing a gathering in Shivpuri Thursday, Yashodhara said, “I had resolved earlier that I was not going to contest elections. I want to thank you all. In a way, this is my goodbye. I have always tried to follow the footsteps of my mother, Rajmata Raje Scindia. It was with her inspiration that I took this decision. Today I pray to all of you that you all will support me in this decision.”
She went on to add that time has passed and that a new generation should come forward. The move follows a letter she had written in August to the BJP top brass about her decision not to contest the elections due this year-end. (Read More)
Ahead of the Madhya Pradesh assembly polls due this year-end, Congress MLA Sachin Birla on Sunday took the BJP's membership and formally joined the ruling party.
The first-time MLA from Barwaha constituency in Khargone district, Birla (40) took the BJP's membership during a function at the party's state office here in the presence of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and MP party unit chief VD Sharma.
He crossed over to the BJP in October 2021, but did not give up membership of the legislature. The Congress did not expel him either. In the 2018 assembly elections, Birla won the Barwaha seat due to the support of Gurjar voters and other backward communities. (PTI)
Farmer leader and former MP Raju Shetti will begin his march later this month, spread over 22 days, to press for the payment of dues to sugarcane farmers in the Sangli, Kolhapur, and Satara districts of Maharashtra.
Shetti’s 522-km journey, which he will begin on October 17, is also another of his efforts to revive the fortunes of his Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana as firebrand leaders have deserted the party.
The rise of Shetti and his party is intrinsically linked with his agitation in the cane belt of Western Maharashtra. However, the party and Shetti himself have lost much of the grip in the area with his critics citing his frequent political somersaults between the Opposition and BJP-led alliance. (Read More)
“MAHILA sashaktikaran ki aawaaz hoon; main Shivraj hoon, main Shivraj hoon (I am the voice of women’s empowerment; I am Shivraj, I am Shivraj).”
Whatever the BJP leadership’s plans for him, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan isn’t going gently into the night.
Far from it. He is actively embracing the limelight in a way that few in the Narendra Modi-centric party have dared before. Two weeks ago, the once self-effacing leader, whose humble image helped him into a fourth term in power, was the star of his government’s ‘The Ladli Show’, where he took questions from an awed and enthusiastic young girl – who covered everything from Chouhan the child of a poor family who led an agitation as a seven-year-old; to Chouhan the “gold-medallist” MA student; to Chouhan the CM, loved by the women of the state as their “mama (uncle)” and who cares for them equally; and even Chouhan the singer.
Read more here
“Khata kya ki humne, pata he nahi”
(What was our crime, we don’t know)
This is the first line of a poem penned by Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankar that he recited in Sikar on Friday. It refers to his “pain and hurt” at being “dragged” into a “political” row by Chief Minister and senior Congress leader Ashok Gehlot over his recent visits to poll-bound Rajasthan.
Over the last 10 days, Gehlot has attacked Dhankhar on several occasions over the latter’s “frequent” visits to the poll-bound state. In his first statement against the V-P on September 27, the CM said, “The Vice-President is doing up-down (between Delhi and Rajasthan). Whether it is the Governor or the Vice President, we respect them… but elections are here. I would want that the Vice-President becomes the President and only then we will welcome him. Please spare us. Now he is visiting and touring day and night, is there any logic? What logic is this?” Continue reading..
Randeep Surjewala, the Congress' Madhya Pradesh in-charge, on Saturday virtually endorsed state unit president Kamal Nath as the party's chief ministerial face ahead of the assembly elections, news agency PTI reported.
Asked about the party's chief ministerial face for the Madhya Pradesh elections after a meeting of the Congress' Central Election Committee at the AICC headquarters, Surjewala said, "Kamal Nath is president of Madhya Pradesh Congress and whoever is president of the Pradesh Congress, that person is naturally the face of the Congress."
Though the Congress has not officially declared its chief ministerial face, Nath is seen as the frontrunner if the party manages to get a majority in the polls.
Former Madhya Pradesh chief minister and senior leader Digvijaya Singh also endorsed Nath as the chief ministerial face earlier.