Out of power for over 12 years and losing hope of returning to power in Madhya Pradesh on its own, the Congress party has entered into an electoral understanding with five small parties to regain power in the 2018 Assembly elections.
Madhya Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) chief spokesman KK Mishra while talking to The Pioneer said, “We have entered an understanding with five smaller parties of the State that we would fight the next assembly elections together. Two of those parties including Gondwana Ganatantra Party (GGP) and Samanta Dal (SD) are with us in the Maihar by-election and the names of rest of our three partners would be disclosed at appropriate time.”
Mishra on being asked that is his party looking for alliances as it considers that it is unable to take on Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alone in the State. “It is not like that, the fact is that Congress is of the view that all the secular parties should come together against the Communal forces and that is why we have decided to forge alliance of likeminded parties, in that till now we have successful in bringing five parties to our fold and expect some more to join us,” he added.
Mishra further said that this alliance could not be equated to that of maha-gathbandhan of Bihar as the political equation of Bihar and Madhya Pradesh are quite different as MP has a bipolar history and never in the history did the third force had any impression over State politics.
He said that Congress is certain to return to power in 2018 as the BKP would fall out due to its own misdeeds. “Not only the NDA Government led by Narendra Modi, but the BJP Government in Madhya Pradesh led by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has also failed on all counts. People are desperately looking for change and that is Congress,” he added
The senior Congress leader on being asked about factionalism in his party replied that we have learnt lessons from the past and now stands united that is visible now and would be seen in future also by the people of the State.