Congress gets MP, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh units battle-ready for possible joint polls

With the Modi government stressing the need for simultaneous assembly and parliamentary elections, the Congress party is quietly gearing up state units in poll-bound states of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan for an advancement of the election schedule.

Congress has set in motion an internal exercise of Lok Sabha constituency-wise demographical analysis, electoral history and classification of segments based on winnability. The three BJP-ruled states would go to assembly polls in November.

With the buzz in political circles of a possibility of advancement of parliamentary elections, Congress fears that the three assembly elections could become a direct fight between Narendra Modi and Rahul Gandhi, which would mean losing the electoral edge that Congress could have in BJP-ruled states of Chhattisgarh and MP, which have seen multiple-term chief ministers.


Apart from in-house studies, the party has already started strengthening its frontal organisations as well, including the Indian Youth Congress, which provides the muchneeded foot soldiers for Congress to work its poll machinery in states. Youth Congress membership drives would start in MP and Rajasthan this week, leading up to selection of the core team for the states.

“While we are preparing for assembly elections, we are simultaneously conducting our internal exercise for Lok Sabha elections as well. We are analysing the Lok Sabha constituencies where we lost narrowly and how these can be worked on. Our workers are already conducting campaigns for state assembly elections, so the poll machinery is already in place,” said PL Punia, All India Congress Committee in-charge of Chhattisgarh.

Punia, however, brushed aside any suggestion of all assembly elections becoming a Modi vs Gandhi contest in case parliamentary polls are advanced.

“People know the difference. Clubbing elections and holding simultaneous polls would only mean putting regional parties to a disadvantage. Like in Chhattisgarh, this would mean giving Congress an advantage,” Punia said in an indirect reference to former chief minister Ajit Jogi’s Chhattisgarh Janata Congress, which is expected to eat into Congress’ vote share in the state’s first triangular contest this November.

In Rajasthan, where the party has recently won three bypolls, the party feels narrative would not change even if state elections are clubbed with parliamentary polls.

Rajasthan state Congress president Sachin Pilot said: “We are absolutely ready. There’s no complacency even after our recent victories in by-elections. We have started a mass contact programme. If there are simultaneous elections, it still does not change the anti-BJP sentiment in the state. And BJP’s face in Rajasthan is Vasundhara Raje. So, it does not change the dynamics of the elections.”