Congress leaders eat together to keep dissidence at bay in Madhya Pradesh

BHOPAL: Break bread together and pledge to work with each other – this is the mantra that the Congress is preaching to its members right before it declares candidates in election-bound Madhya Pradesh.

The dissidence-ridden party unit in the state is being kept together with an extensive exercise in each district which sees all ticket seekers sitting together for meals and then pledging to work for the party. Expecting rebel candidates to put up a fight against the party’s official candidates once the lists are announced this month, the ticket seekers are made to take a vow of working for the party in the presence of Congress seniors. The job has been entrusted to party veteran Digvijaya Singh, who is heading the samanvay samiti (coordination committee).

Travelling to various districts, Singh is spending three-four days meeting ticket seekers and holding samanvay samiti meetings. In Bhopal till Tuesday, Singh has initiated the exercise in the districts which have been completely dominated by BJP. The meetings in Bhopal end with ‘Sangat mein Pangat’, which roughly translated means sitting in rows together to eat. A local ticket seeker from Sironj reserved assembly segment, who attended the meeting, said, “Raja sahib (as Singh is called in Madhya Pradesh) is travelling across the state and listening to everyone. But at the end of each programme, there is Sangat mein Pangat where everyone sits and eats together.”


Before Congress members start eating, they are made to raise both their hands and take a pledge of sorts. “We break bread together. Ticket seekers from one constituency generally sit in one row. Then we raise our hands and take a vow and pledge allegiance to our party. It makes a difference. We swear on our food,” another ticket seeker from Basoda assembly segment told ET.