To unite the faction-ridden State unit of the Congress before the upcoming Assembly elections, members of Madhya Pradesh Congress's coordination committee would be embarking on a 'yatra'.
While talking to media persons here on Thursday, committee chief and senior leader Digvijay Singh said the State-wide tour will start by offering prayers at the Ram Raja temple at Orchha in Tikamgarh district on May 31.
"The yatra is aimed at resolving the differences between our leaders at district level," Singh told, adding that the yatra would end on August 31 after covering all the districts.
Satyavrat Chaturvedi, a member of the committee, too would take active part in the yatra along with other 12 members, Singh said. Chaturvedi is considered to be Singh's arch rival in the state unit.
No member of the coordination committee is going to contest elections, Singh said, adding that anybody who wises to contest, would voluntarily resign from the committee.
They would dine together with cadres during the journey, the former chief minister said. The leaders would not accept bio-datas or applications from ticket aspirants during the tour, he added.
Madhya Pradesh unit head of Congress, Kamal Nath, who was also present on the occasion, said the party was open to forging an alliance with like-minded parties for the upcoming assembly election in the state at the end of this year.
Nath said that talks with these parties have not yet started. “It is yet to be decided whether it should be a seat sharing agreement, understanding on candidates and other such details,” he told.
Explaining the logic behind considering an anti-BJP coalition, he said that in the 2014 election, BJP had received 31 per cent of the votes polled and 69 per cent of the votes were against him. “Despite this, the BJP claims the public mandate was with them. We do not want the secular vote to be divided, so we will start discussions with parties soon,” he said.
The veteran Congress leader’s statement comes just a day after several opposition leaders attended the swearing-in ceremony of Karnataka CM HD Kumaraswamy in a massive show of unity. Nath said that the situation on the national level and at the state level was different, but alliances will have to be made keeping in mind the target of 2019 elections.