Former Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh Kamal Nath on Friday took a dig at Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) saying that the BJP was fighting a battle for survival in the state.
Targeting the BJP ahead of the state assembly polls which is scheduled to be held next month, Nath wrote on X (formerly Twitter), "BJP is fighting a battle for survival not for the assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh."
Meanwhile, state BJP Secretary Rajneesh Agarwal hit back on Nath's post and said that BJP's vote percentage as well as the number of seats would increase this time in the forthcoming state assembly polls.
"Madhya Pradesh is the state where Jan Sangh remained a stronghold. For the first time in the country, the BJP government was formed in Madhya Pradesh. The BJP remained in power continuously from 2003 to 2018. During the 2018 assembly polls also, BJP got the maximum vote share of 41 per cent."
Even today, BJP has established its identity of service and good governance by being in power. This time, not only will the vote percentage of the BJP increase but also the numbers of seats will increase, the BJP leader said.
"This question of survival is of Kamal Nath, the Congress will definitely cease to exist in the upcoming assembly polls," he added.
Madhya Pradesh is scheduled to undergo assembly polls on November 17. Through the polls, the state will elect legislators from 230 Assembly constituencies. The election would be conducted in one phase in the state and the counting would be done on December 3.
In the last 2018 assembly elections, Congress won 114 seats with a vote share of 40.89 percent while the BJP came second and managed to win 109 seats. Its vote share was 41.02 per cent. After which the Congress government came to power, with veteran leader Kamal Nath taking oath as the chief minister.
Nonetheless, a political upheaval rocked the state in 2020, after the then Congressman Jyotiraditya Scindia, along with 22 loyalist MLAs, switched over to the saffron camp.
The Congress government fell after being reduced to a minority and the BJP formed the government, with Shivraj Singh Chouhan returning as chief minister.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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