Congress on Monday started the preparations for the Madhya Pradesh election with the central leadership holding a meeting with state leaders and Rahul Gandhi exuding confidence that the party will bag 150 out of 230 seats.
The meeting was chaired by Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge and attended by Rahul, Congress General Secretary (Organisation) KC Venugopal, party in-charge JP Aggarwal, Madhya Pradesh Congress chief Kamal Nath and senior leaders Digvijaya Singh, Govind Singh, Kanti Lal Bhuria, Suresh Pachouri, Raj Mani Patel and Vivek Tankha among others.
Sources said at the meeting, the leaders discussed various facets of the election strategy. The leaders resolved to fight the elections unitedly. The party will highlight corruption under the BJP government.
The Karnataka model of campaign was discussed and leaders agreed that they should roll out promises in a staggered manner while ensuring that they remain united.
After the meeting, Rahul told reporters, “We had a detailed meeting right now and our internal assessment says that since we got 135 seats in Karnataka, we are now going to get 150 seats in Madhya Pradesh. What we did in Karnataka we are going to repeat that.”
Asked who will be the Chief Ministerial face, he repeated, “we are going to win 150.”
Nath said they all discussed the strategy and the issues on which the party should contest these polls. “We are all of the opinion that we will enter the poll fray unitedly,” he said adding that the polls are just over four months later and it was a very important meeting in which they all were present.
Asked about plans to announce guarantees on the lines of Karnataka, he said they have made a beginning with the 'Nari Samman Yojna'. “We have done some and some will be announced in the future. We can't fire all the bullets in one go,” he added.
Aggarwal said all leaders gave their inputs for the upcoming assembly elections. “Everyone felt that all leaders should contest the elections unitedly and help the party win in the state,” he said.