A day after the Election Commission of India (ECI) announced the upcoming election schedule for five states, parties are set to step up campaigning efforts in the five poll-bound states.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will address a public meeting in Beohari of Madhya Pradesh’s Shahdol district on Tuesday. The state will go to polls on November 17.
It’s his second such event in the state in 10 days, after a public gathering in Shajapur district on September 30. Kamal Nath, the former Chief Minister and the party’s top leader in the state, will also address the rally in Shahdol.
Shahdol is a part of the tribal belt in Vindhya Pradesh, where the Congress had a poor showing in the 2018 Assembly polls. The BJP had maintained its hold here, winning 24 of the 30 seats in the region.
BJP fares ahead in poll preparedness in MP
In the run-up to the Madhya Pradesh assembly polls on November 17, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) appears to have stolen a march on the Congress in declaring candidates and electioneering.
The saffron party has declared candidates for 136 out of the total 230 assembly seats in the state in four separate lists, while the Congress is yet to come out with even its first list of nominees.
In the last seven months, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the BJP’s top poll campaigner, has visited MP nine times, mostly to address public meetings and functions.
BJP’s chief poll strategist and Union Home Minister Amit Shah has visited the state five times in seven months.
Also Read: MP Election Date 2023: Madhya Pradesh Assembly election to be held on November 17, results on Dec 3
In contrast, Congress general secretary and star campaigner Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has visited MP and addressed election meeting three times since June 12, when she kicked off her party’s campaign from Jabalpur.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, another star campaigner of the opposition party, has addressed just one election rally so far and will be addressing his second one on Tuesday (October 10).
The BJP also took the lead in reaching out to the people of Madhya Pradesh. Its ‘Jan Ashirwad Yatras’, which covered 223 assembly seats, started on September 3 and ended with PM Modi’s address on September 25 in the state capital Bhopal.
The Congress’s ‘Jan Aakrosh Yatras’, which traversed through all 230 seats, started on September 19 and culminated on October 5 with a rally in the Dhar district addressed by Priyanka Gandhi.
(With inputs from PTI)