The Madhya Pradesh Congress sounded quite buoyed on Wednesday evening as it quoted a survey reportedly conducted by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the BJP to claim that the opposition party will win 22 out of the 27 seats up for by-polls in the state.
The BJP, which has to win a minimum of 9 of the 27 seats to continue with its government, has however called the Congress's claims a ‘bundle of falsehoods’.
The claim comes on the eve of a four-day joint tour by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Rajya Sabha member Jyotiraditya Scindia of the Gwalior Chambal region, wherein they will conduct foundation-laying ceremonies for several developmental projects and works.
Also, it comes on a day when the national organizing general secretary of the BJP, B.L. Santosh was in Bhopal and held a series of meetings with office bearers of different fronts, the in-charges of assembly constituency level units and also the election committee of the MP BJP.
Though the existence of any such survey could not be independently verified by THE WEEK, the MP Congress has quoted local media reports giving details of the so-called survey to push through social media that the ruling BJP was lagging far behind in the election scenario.
The survey reportedly says that the BJP will be able to win just one or two out of 16 seats in the Gwalior-Chambal region where 16 seats will be up for contest and the main reason is that a large section of BJP workers is upset with Jyotiraditya Scindia and his supporters who joined the saffron party over past few months.
Also, the popularity of Scindia among common people is on the wane and the stamp of being betrayers has gotten stuck to him and his supporters, the survey has reportedly found.
In Malwa-Nimad region where seven seats are up for by-poll, the BJP can win maximum three, the survey reportedly shows.
The MP Congress came up with a series of tweets, some carrying local media reports on the survey, to say that people have decided to teach the BJP a lesson. They have said that Congress will win 22 seats according to RSS survey and this will be the win of the masses.
The Congress also said that the BJP has started finding excuses to deny tickets to the Congress ex-MLAs who switched over to the BJP through this survey. The RSS has reportedly suggested that some of the ex-MLAs should not be fielded to diffuse the negativity among voters.
Chief spokesperson of the MP BJP Deepak Vijayvargiya trashed the Congress claims saying that the entire country is now aware of the falsehoods that the Congress spreads on all counts and this is the reason that the party is facing resounding defeat everywhere. “If they have to spread falsehoods even to maintain the morale of the party workers, it speaks of their pathetic ground situation. They will not even find candidates let alone win seats,” he says.
Meanwhile, sources said that during the series of meetings held on Wednesday, the national organizing general secretary of BJP, B.L. Santosh has said that the ministers in charge of the 27 constituencies will be held personally responsible for the results on these seats and therefore they should put in all efforts to ensure their party wins.
