In MP, Congress Begins Selection of Lok Sabha Candidates

Party officials said they have already started forming committees to know the opinions of grass-root level workers.

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath’s swearing-in-ceremony, in Bhopal, Monday, 17 December 2018.

(Photo: PTI)

Coming back to power after 15 years, the Congress in Madhya Pradesh is eyeing a repeat of a similar performance in the state in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections for which it is leaving no stones unturned.

Party officials said that it has already started forming committees to know the opinions of grass-root level workers. Meanwhile, newly elected Chief Minister Kamal Nath has been holding meetings with different senior party leaders and officials to chose candidates for the Lok Sabha elections.

According to party sources, apart from state Secretary in charge Deepak Babariya, other leaders like Varsha Gaekward, Sudhangshu Tripathi, Zuber Khan, Harshvardhan Sakpal, Sanjay Kapoor have been deputed for the election campaigns.

The "party wants to field the best candidate forth for the election after holding discussions with every single congress worker in respective zone and is working on the same idea. The party in charge will be sent the report who will take the call on selection of candidates before forwarding it to the high command," said the state's Congress spokesman, Durgesh Sharma.

Party in charge for the state KC Venugopal recently formed different committees as a part of the election campaign in Madhya Pradesh in which along with Nath, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Digvijay Singh, Rajendra Singh and Ajay Singh have been involved.

In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) swept the state with 27 seats out of 29 while the Congress got only two.

However, in the state Assembly elections that were held on 29 November 2018, the Congress won 114 seats out of 230 while the BJP came close behind at 109.