BHOPAL (Madhya Pradesh): The Congress party held a Central Election Committee (CEC) meeting in view of the Madhya Pradesh assembly polls at the AICC (All India Congress Committee) headquarters in Delhi on Friday.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, MPs Rahul Gandhi, KC Venugopal and other party leaders attended the meeting on the occasion.
According to the sources, the Congress is likely to finalise the first list of around 140 candidates for the forthcoming assembly polls in the meeting and the list is likely to be released on Sunday. After the CEC meeting, a screening committee meeting of the party will also be held for discussion on the remaining names of the candidates for the assembly polls.
Madhya Pradesh is scheduled to undergo assembly polls on November 17. Through the polls, the state will elect legislators from 230 Assembly constituencies.
The election would be conducted in one phase in the state and the counting would be done on December 3.
In the 2018 assembly elections, Congress won 114 seats with a vote share of 41.5 percent while BJP got 109 seats with a vote share of 41.6 percent. The last state assembly polls saw the Congress coming to power, with veteran leader Kamal Nath taking oath as the chief minister.
Nonetheless, a political upheaval rocked the state in 2020, after the then Congressman Jyotiraditya Scindia, along with 22 loyalist MLAs, switched over to the saffron camp.
The Congress government fell after being reduced to a minority and the BJP formed the government, with Shivraj Singh Chouhan returning as chief minister.
Earlier today MP CM Shivraj Chouhan launched an attack on Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi claiming that the Congress was making false promises to the people.
“The Congress is lying for votes. Earlier too (during 2018 assembly polls), Rahul Gandhi promised that all loans would be waived within 10 days. They (Congress)were forcing them (Rahul and Priyanka) to make false promises. This was Congress’ policy of getting votes by confusing the people.”
Earlier on Thursday, addressing a public gathering in Madhya Pradesh’s Mandla district on Thursday, Priyanka Gandhi announced the Congress’s Padho-Padhao scheme.
“Under Padho-Padhao Yojana, monthly aid of Rs 500 will be given to the students from Class 1 to Class 8. Similarly, Rs 1000 a month will be given to students of Class 9 and Class. Rs 1500 a month will be given to students of class 11 and Class 12,”Priyanka Gandhi had said. (ANI)