With its organisational teams ready, the Madhya Pradesh Congress has started active preparations for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls and will be holding organisational conventions at every assembly seat in the state between January 18 and 24.
The decision in this regard was taken at a joint meeting of parliament coordinators for the Lok Sabha seats; district Congress presidents, district in-charges and state presidents of the various front organizations and departments and cells of the party on Monday.
Also, state party chief Jitu Patwari, leader of opposition Umang Singhar and deputy leader of opposition Hemant Katare will undertake district level tours for poll preparations. It will start with Gwalior-Chambal region on January 9 and districts like Datia, Bhind, Morena, Sheopur, Shivpuri, Guna and Ashoknagar will be covered till January 12, the MP Congress has said.
Before the joint meeting, separate meetings of the political affairs committee and the state election committee—that were constituted on January 6—were also held to strategise for the Lok Sabha polls.
The 32-member political affairs committee is headed by AICC general secretary in-charge for Madhya Pradesh Bhanwar Jitendra Singh while Patwari is the convener. Former chief ministers Kamal Nath and Digvijaya Singh, former union ministers and state presidents Suresh Pachauri and Arun Yadav, former leader of opposition Ajay Singh are among the members of this committee. The 34-member state election committee is headed by Patwari and also includes Nath, Singh, leader of opposition Umang Singhar, Pachauri, Kantilal Bhuria and others.
All these senior leaders attended the respective meetings on Monday in presence of Jitendra Singh. Patwari presided over the meetings.
Following the meetings, the chief spokesperson of MP Congress, K.K. Mishra said that a number of decisions including the assembly seat wise conventions were taken. Mishra said that the party leaders and workers will keep a keen eye on the voters’ list revision exercise taken up by the Election Commission of India (ECI) and take necessary actions.
Also decisions were taken for effective completion of the Madhya Pradesh leg of the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra to be held under leadership of Rahul Gandhi from January 14 to March 20. The yatra will pass through nine districts of the state (Morena, Gwalior, Shivpuri, Guna, Rajgarh, Agar Malwa, Ujjain, Ratlam, Jhabua), covering 700 kms in seven days.
Also, party leaders were asked to ensure maximum collection of party funds through contribution under a format decided on the occasion of 138th anniversary of the party.
Madhya Pradesh has 29 Lok Sabha seats, of which BJP holds 28 and Congress holds only one at Chhindwara. Faced with a big defeat in the recently held assembly polls in the state, the Congress has brought about significant organizational changes – giving the charge to the young guard under Jitu Patwari as the state president.
Also, perhaps taking lessons from the delayed actions regarding ticket distribution and other preparations before assembly polls, the party has set up organizational bodies for the Lok Sabha elections four months in advance.
