The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Madhya Pradesh has taunted the Congress for not yet releasing a list of its candidates for the upcoming State Assembly elections scheduled for November this year.

The BJP has taken the lead by announcing two lists, each comprising 39 candidates, with the third list featuring only one candidate, while the Congress has yet to disclose its choices.

Umashankar Gupta, the chief of Madhya Pradesh BJP’s Election Management Committee, told media persons on Friday that despite the continuous campaigning by senior Congress party leaders in Madhya Pradesh for several days, they have been unable to finalise a single list of candidates.

AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi and Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi have toured different parts of the State in the recent past.

The BJP claimed that factionalism and infighting within the Congress have paralysed the party, leading to the perception that it has already conceded defeat.

Gupta alleged that ever since Congress national general secretary Randeep Surjewala arrived in Bhopal for the elections, factionalism has become evident within the Congress party. He claimed the delay in releasing the list of candidates is due to the internal infighting.

Surjewala is active in central politics and has been a Congress loyalist, while Kamal Nath is a veteran who became prominent in the Sanjay Gandhi era.

Recently, during a joint Press conference by both the leaders, Nath had clearly mentioned that he did not believe in meeting media persons because he remains busy. He had stated that since Surjewala is here, media persons should contact him only.

Gupta said this was the reason that the meeting of the Congress Screening Committee lasted for nine hours, but after seeing protest by Surjewala camp, Nath walked out.

He said, “To keep Digvijay Singh away from the Congress screening committee meeting in Delhi, he was sent to count the chairs in the rally”.