New Delhi: The Nationalist Congress Party has (NCP) announced to contest the coming assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh.
National Media coordinator and Special Working Committee member of NCP of Ajit Pawar faction, Prof. Navin Kumar said that the party with the consent of its national president Ajit Pawar and National working president Prafulla Patel has decided to throw hats in the electoral battle in Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections. The party has decided to field its candidate in the elections due in November this year.
To a query, Prof. Kumar said that whether NCP would enter into the electoral battle of Madhya Pradesh at its own or in Alliance with any other political party would be decided later on in the related meetings of the outfit. He further said that the number of seats and names of the candidates would be finalised by Mr Patel and Mr Pawar in the meeting.
The MP Assembly elections are scheduled to be held by November this year to elect 230 members. As it is Congress came to the power in MP during the last assembly elections and Kamalnath was sworn in as the chief minister but his government collapsed in March 2020 when a seasoned Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia engineered a split into the party and defected to the BJP with 22 Congress legislators. Subsequently BJP had formed the government in the leadership of Shivraj Singh Chauhan.
Speaking about the electoral symbol to be allotted to the NCP, Prof. Kumar informed that the Election Commission is slated to decide the issue on October 6 and hoped the decision would go in favour of NCP. He further said that in view of majority being in the support of Ajit Pawar faction, the NCP stalwart Prafull Patel was also hopeful of the symbol to be allotted to his party by the Election Commission.
Referring to the statement of Praful Patel who had expressed his doubts over the oppositions I.N.D.I.A. alliance, the NCP leader said that seat sharing issue was the major bone of contention among the constituent units of the opposition Alliance and was not only difficult but appears to be impossible.
Profusely appreciating Prime Minister Narendra Modi for passage of the long pending Womens Reservation Bill in parliament Prof. Kumar said that decision of keeping away the issue of giving reservation to women of Other Backward Classes(OBCs) was in the interest of the bill as it could have obstructed its smooth passage. The issue of giving reservation to women of OBC could be discussed later, he quipped.
He said the bill was first brought in parliament over two decades ago but could not sail through due to one reason or the other. Congresss insensitivity on the issue was most responsible for denial of reservation to women in parliament and state assemblies so far, he alleged.