Rajya Sabha MP and former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijaya Singh on Wednesday said the Congress winning seven of the 16 seats in the Gwalior-Chambal region demonstrated that a “new Congress” had stood up.
“People thought after the departure of Scindia ji the Congress would end. But a new Congress has stood up,” Mr. Singh wrote in Hindi on Twitter. The region is the stronghold of BJP MP Jyotiraditya Scindia whose supporters won all the region’s seats as Congress candidates in the 2018 Assembly election.
In the Malwa, the Nimar and the Bundelkhand regions, the results were not in the favour of the Congress, admitted Mr. Singh. “The Congress fought as a unit; there were no complaints of factionalism anywhere,” he said.
After the fall of the Congress government in March, the BJP claimed it was a result of internal conflict within the party.
Further, Mr. Singh said: “The Congress will have to be given a new form.” He added that struggle was necessary for implementing decisions during the Kamal Nath government such as farmers’ loan waiver, relief in electricity bills to farmers and common families and raise in widows’ and old age pension.
While reposing faith in the leadership of the “Nehru-Gandhi” family, he hoped to win the trust of the public again. “The BJP will make full use of ‘money power’ to suppress ‘people’s power’. But we must stand with the poor, workers, farmers and marginalised sections against the falling economy and increasing unemployment under the BJP in the country. And we will succeed.,” he said.
Party bags 9 seats
On Tuesday, the BJP was declared winner on 19 seats, which has taken its tally in the 230-member Assembly to 126. The Congress bagged nine and was only partly able to recover its numbers to reach 96. The by-election was precipitated by the resignations of 25 Congress MLAs since March and the deaths of three sitting legislators.
