Kamal Nath launches poll campaign with temple visit in Ujjain

Former MP Chief Minister and state Congress president Kamal Nath on Tuesday started his poll campaign for by-polls with a visit to Mahakal Temple in Ujjain. The state will go for by-polls on 24 assembly seats, which will decide the fate of the current BJP Government. In 2018 too, Nath had started his campaign with a visit to the temple in Ujjain. The visit this time was planned for July 3. However due to rains, the program was rescheduled for Tuesday.

Jyotiraditya Scindia who headed the Congress campaign committee back in 2018 is now the challenger from the BJP side. The election has been necessitated with Scindia moving out of Congress along with 22 Congress MLAs. After Mahakal temple, Nath visited another temple in Badnawar before addressing his first Loktantra Bachao (Save Democracy) rally.

Kamal Nath tried to keep the ball rolling for the crowd right from the beginning. “I am not a Maharaja, nor a tiger or Mama. I am a Jan Sevak Kamal Nath,” he said while addressing the party workers. “Was it my fault that I rescued the state from the clutches of the mafia? I tried to establish Madhya Pradesh at the national level by bringing more investments and trying to generate more employment,” Nath said.

He further added that people of MP should remember the leaders who would come to ask for their votes with a different ideology now.

With Kamal Nath out on the streets today, Congress has kickstarted the party campaign in the state. The party has already conducted surveys regarding ticket distribution and ministers in the earlier government have been entrusted with the task of working in the assembly constituencies.

“Our main focus in the election would be a comparison before the people of 15 years of Shivraj Government and 15 months of Kamla Nath Government in the state,” Jaivardhan Singh, Congress leader and former state minister told ET. “We would also highlight how certain people backstabbed and defied the people’s mandate for their vested interests.”

The party now is planning to set up a 24 hours call centre in each of the 24 assembly constituencies and an IT and social media team would take charge in coming days. The focus would be on local issues in each of the assembly segments and what all has been done there in the past. Gwalior Chambal region has 16 out of 24 seats and much action would be happening there. Congress would set up its war room in Gwalior and a second war room in Indore. Kamal Nath as the party face would also spend maximum time in Gwalior Chambal region.