“Our face for the elections will be the farmer in distress. Our face for the elections will be the unemployed youth, the unhappy trader, the insecure women…these will be our faces,” says Congress leader Kamal Nath.
A month into his role as chief of the Madhya Pradesh Congress, veteran party leader Kamal Nath says he is confident of the party coming to power in the state. Speaking to The Indian Express, Nath says he is in talks with the BSP and other smaller parties over seat-sharing arrangement and suggests that the party’s face for the Assembly polls will be the farmer in distress, unemployed youth, the unhappy trader and the insecure women.
You are in talks with the BSP for an alliance in Madhya Pradesh. Have you sealed the deal?
We will be talking to all parties. We must remember that the politics of today is very fragmented. And this fragmentation dictates these kind of alignments. One must not forget that the BJP, which claimed they got a national mandate in 2014, got only 31 per cent of the popular vote. That means 69 per cent of the people voted against the BJP. And the BJP trumpets they have a national mandate. So that is the way our parliamentary and legislative democracy works. So that is why we don’t want fragmentation of votes. So we will be talking to everybody. Nothing is signed, sealed up till now.
What about other smaller parties like the Gondwana Ganatantra Party? How many seats are you willing to give them?
We will be talking to all. There are other small parties. There is Samata Party, Samajwadi Party…we will talk to all. We are working on various options. The question is not of giving seats. The question is of winning seats. There is a difference between them. If we give the seats to any party, whosoever it is, and if they lose it…what is the point? So winnability will be the factor.
There are lots of aspirants in your party as well for these seats?
Yes, absolutely. It is a tightrope walk.
Digvijaya Singh is on an ekta or samanvay yatra to unify the party. You all say there is no factionalism now in Madhya Pradesh. Then why such a yatra?
Since we have not been in the government for the last 15 years, a lot of Congress workers are sitting at home… It is to mobilise them. There is total unity in the party. At the district level, block level, village level, there may be groups…but otherwise there are no groups. We are all working together. So we decided, it is not that Digvijaya Singh is doing it independently, it is in coordination with all of us. I have requested him to do this. Because he was PCC president and chief minister… so him going there and meeting people who are not active anymore…will help. The BJP has also put a lot of pressure on Congressmen over the last 10-15 years to sit at home. Otherwise, they will hurt their business…so he is talking to those people.
It has been a month that you have taken over as MPCC president. You have been camping in the state since then. What is the mood of the people and what is going to be your campaign theme?
The mood of the people is clearly for a change. I have never in my political life seen a situation where all sections of the society are against the government. The farmer, the youth, the trader, the women…all are against this government. There are two major issues — farmers’ distress and unemployment. So these will be our flagship issues. In Madhya Pradesh, 65 to 75 per cent of people are dependent on agriculture….The economy is dictated by the agriculture sector. On the employment front, there are no investments in Madhya Pradesh because it is termed as the most corrupt state. Corruption is going to be another headline issue.
The BJP has a cm face. They will, of course, ask you who is your face against Shivraj Singh Chouhan?
Our face for the elections will be the farmer in distress. Our face for the elections will be the unemployed youth, the unhappy trader, the insecure women…these will be our faces.
After 2014, the Congress has only won two state elections — Punjab and Puducherry. And in Punjab, you had a clear chief ministerial face. That helped you win the election.
It was announced in the last month. If there is a necessity, Rahul Gandhi will take a decision. But did the BJP project anybody in UP, Uttarakhand….in all the other states? So it is not the question of projection. The question is what is the mood of the people.
There are reports that Jyotiraditya Scindia is not very happy?
This is absolutely wrong. We are in constant touch. We have complete coordination with each other. In fact, I am the luckiest PCC president that I don’t have to combat any groupism.
When will you announce the candidates? In Karnataka, the Congress came out with the list earlier than usual.
We also want to announce candidates as early as possible. I think by September. The criteria for selection of candidates is going to be winnability. We are very clear. It can’t be his man or my man or X’s man. It has to be purely winnability, for which we are making a ground assessment. We are getting feedback from the organisation, independent sources… which is the best candidate. Then you will have to see the caste combination.. caste balance…