Teary meeting of Cong bigwigs who lost polls
Many Congress bigwigs lost the November 28 Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh despite the party bouncing back to power in MP after 15 years. But the meeting of two high-profile losers of the party in Bhopal on Thursday attracted attention.
Former state Congress president Arun Yadav (who lost to outgoing Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan from Budhni seat by more than 59,000 votes) broke into tears while meeting and embracing the outgoing leader of opposition, Ajay Singh (who lost from Churhat seat) outside the latter’s residence, amid the suspense over who would become the new chief minister prevailing in the neighbouring party headquarters. Before the elections, Arun Yadav had expressed confidence that he would emerge a giant-killer, asserting the alarming rise of the “sand mafia” and the Vyapam examination scam would prove to be outgoing Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s political Waterloo.
War of slogans outside MP Congress HQ
Two days of suspense over who would be chosen the next CM of Madhya Pradesh provided the perfect opportunity to supporters of Kamal Nath and Jyotiraditya Scindia to not only show their might outside the MP Congress state HQ, but also get their visuals and sound bytes regularly beamed across the nation through the TV crews stationed in Bhopal since the day the results were announced. Right since Wednesday afternoon, the supporters of the two leaders, armed with cut-outs of their leaders, were seen raising innovative slogans in support of their leaders. Many a time supporters from both camps tried to shout out each other, ultimately rendering the desired visuals to TV channels throughout the two days.
Cong MLAs offer to vacate seat for Singh
While Congress supporters indulged in unending celebrations outside the MP Congress Committee headquarters in Bhopal right since Tuesday, in the immediate neighbourhood, at the house of leader of opposition and senior Congress leader Ajay Singh ‘Rahul,’ the atmosphere was quiet owing to Singh’s poll loss from Churhat in Sidhi district. While Singh remained non-committal on his future plans, many newly-elected MLAs offered to vacate their newly won seats to enable Singh to contest from there.
BJP hope of winning Bhopal seats dashed
The victory of two Muslim candidates of the Congress from seats in Bhopal has dealt a body blow to the BJP’s hopes of winning the votes of Muslim women on the issue of triple talaq. Despite fielding a young Muslim woman, Fatima Rasool Siddiqui (the daughter of ex-Congress legislator Rasool Ahmad Siddiqui), the party lost the Bhopal Uttar seat to five-time sitting MLA and ex-minister Arif Aqeel by around 35,000 votes. Also, the party’s sitting MLA, Surendranath Singh ‘Mamma’, failed to retain the Bhopal Madhya seat after losing to Congress’ Arif Masood by around 15,000 votes.
Chaos at Press briefing
Chaos prevailed inside the main conference hall of the MP Congress Committee headquarters on Thursday night during the press briefing by senior Congress leaders, including AICC observers Bhanwar Jitendra Singh and AK Antony. While media crews waited in large numbers outside the party HQ in Bhopal from the evening for the official announcement of who will be the leader, they were allowed inside the hall only after the meeting ended at around 11.45 pm. Inside the hall, repeated requests by Congress leaders to media crews to maintain “discipline” fell on deaf ears. Several scribes blamed it on mismanagement by those tasked with media management.