Congress to form govt in MP with 140 plus seats, says Kamal Nath

BHOPAL: "Do cheez aaj shanti se nipat gayi – chunav aur BJP (Two things have been finished peacefully -- elections and BJP)," said state Congress president Kamal Nath, speaking to reporters late on Wednesday evening. The senior Congress leader claimed that his party is coming to power in the state with more than 140 seats out of the total 230.

"I have said before that Congress will get 140 plus seats in Madhya Pradesh. But now that the election is over and with the kind of voting that occurred, I would not be surprised if results are more surprising," he said.

Kamal Nath claimed that people of the state got the opportunity on Wednesday to give their reply to the BJP. “Ek tarfa mattdaan hua hai (Voting has been one-sided). Voters came out to secure the future of the state,” he said.

Asked about who would be the chief minister if Congress came to power, Kamal Nath retorted, "I am confident that Congress is winning this election. After that we will accept whatever decision is made by Rahul Gandhi."

Speaking on the Wednesday’s polling across the state, Kamal Nath expressed concern over the number of malfunctioning EVM machines. “From every district, we received news of malfunctioning EVMs. There have been instances when polling had to be stalled for more than three hours in many booths,” he said.

The former Union minister said that he spoke to the chief election commissioner OP Rawat of ECI and VL Kantha Rao, chief electoral officer of EC here and demanded repoll in booths where election was paused for three hours or more because of malfunctioning EVMs and VVPATs. “Wherever polling was stopped for three hours and more, there should be repoll. We asked for repolling under provisions of section 58 of the Representation of the People Act. It is not alright if time for polling is increased till 9 pm voters come to the polling booth and they go away,” Kamal Nath said.

He also argued that in Satna, faulty EVMs were replaced but even the replaced EVMs malfunctioned. “We spoke to the collector of Satna and he told us that the replaced EVMs were also malfunctioning and hence had to get new machines,” Kamal Nath said. “But our question is how can so many machines malfunction when each one of them were tested. The EVMs underwent the first level test and yet from every constituency, there were complaints. Some places it was one EVM and others where as many as 60 EVMs were malfunctioning,” he added.

Congress party also showed videos of voting malpractices in certain constituencies like Bhikangaon where the presiding officer of a booth asked a voter to press the second button beside the BJP symbol. Also when a fake voter went to cast his vote, the police did not arrest him in Lahar seat. In another video, Congress claimed EC officials were found with EVMs in their hotel rooms.

Kamal Nath accepted that the Congress party has asked for the EC’s permission to have its workers guard the EVM machines since counting day is only on December 11. “We are waiting for the reply from the EC. Our workers can’t be with the EVMs from tonight but could be from tomorrow,” he said. Kamal Nath, however, also said that he has full trust in the returning officers and the police officials guarding the EVMs in strong rooms. “I have full faith in the police officers,” he said adding that officials also know that after December 11 there will be a December 12.