Indore: In the upcoming Assembly election, the State Congress is in a position to give tough fight to the ruling BJP, which is facing anti-incumbency. But, its senior leaders are wide awake about some hopefuls who may turn rebels in case they fail to get nomination.
The recent Goa development is an eye opener for them when two Congress MLAs switched allegiance and joined the saffron party. This picky incident compounded the problems of state Congress leaders who fear similar situation here.
However, they are trying their best to avoid such situation in Madhya Pradesh and are taking enough time in selecting candidates and also looking for consequences if there are more than one contestant. Fearing rebel and chances to party hopping, the Congress has recruited some ‘undercover’ party activists to keep vigil on activities of these aspirants. These undercover agents are party workers, who will report over activities of the ‘aspirants’ like what they are planning if not selected as party’s candidate and to whom they are in contact with.
These ‘undercover’ activists are reporting to senior party leaders and giving those updates about the probable party ‘hoppers’ and also about those in contact with leaders of the BJP and other parties. At present, there are more than two aspiring party candidates for Indore-1 and Indore-5 constituencies. However, party’s media in-charge Shobha Oza claimed that leaders from the BJP, BSP and other parties are willing to join the Congress and many of them are in contact with the senior party leaders.
Rahul in Mhow on Oct 29-30!
Suspense over visit of Congress chief Rahul Gandhi to Mhow still continues. Earlier, Gandhi was to visit Mhow on October 24-25 but now he would visit on October 29. “Rahulji will visit Mhow between Oct 24 and 30. The date has not been finalised yet but it will be announced within few days” Oza said.
JAYS yet to open its cards
While major political parties fear party hoppers, Jai Adivasi Yuwa Shakti (JAYS), having strong presence in tribal areas of the state, is waiting for the BJP and the Congress to open their cards. JAYS is already having talks with Congress over distribution of tickets as they want 40 seats in tribal dominanted areas.
“We are in talks with the Congress. Things would be cleared by October 25-26,” National Convenor of JAYS Dr Hiralal Alawa said.
He said: “We are waiting for the declaration of candidate lists by the Congress and the BJP and we will field suitable candidates to challenge them.”
“Many leaders of the BJP and the Congress are willing to support us. We will release our list only after announcement of candidates by teh two major parties because some of their rebels may join us,” he said. However, Dr Alawa cleared that they would give top priority to candidates who are working for JAYS.