BHOPAL: Yet another video of Madhya Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) president Kamal Nath has gone viral over social media, triggering fresh political controversy ahead of the November 28 assembly polls in the central Indian state.
In a 1.20 minute long video (TNIE cannot vouch for its authenticity) went viral over the social media on Wednesday, Nath is seen telling party workers at a meeting that if 90% polling is not ensured in the Muslim community, then the Congress will be in a loss in the coming polls.
"Go and check the record of Muslim polling booths of previous polls, it's all available on the internet. Do the post-mortem of these records and if you find that only 50 to 60% polling took place at Muslim booths in the previous elections, then find out what was the reason behind the low polling in those booths," Nath is seen asking party workers in the video.
"If Muslim community polling doesn't touch 90% then we'll (Congress) will be in loss," adds Nath.
The video which has also been tweeted by national BJP's IT Cell head Amit Malviya has triggered war of words between the BJP and Congress.
Reacting over the development, BJP national vice president and Rajya Sabha member Prabhat Jha said the video has once again exposed that the Congress only believes in vote bank politics on communal lines. "We'll complain the matter to the Election Commission.
"On the other hand, the MP Congress media in-charge Shobha Oza said after realizing that defeat is certain in the coming polls, the BJP is playing dirty gimmick of tarnishing the image of senior Congress leaders through such videos.
"Whichever section of society has met the state Congress chief, he has told them to vote in large numbers. What's wrong in that, even the Election Commission is appealing people to vote in large numbers," said Oza.
This is the third video of the former union minister and nine-time Lok Sabha member from Chhindwara since November 3, which has created a political controversy in MP.
In the video which went viral on November 3, Nath was seen endorsing fielding even people with criminal records as party candidates in the coming poll, if they were winnable. The Congress complained the Election Commission against the BJP over the video and the probe is still underway in the matter.
Even the Prime Minister Narendra Modi had referred to that video while addressing a poll rally in Nath's parliamentary constituency Chhindwara on November 18, after which the Congress had complained the EC over the matter, demanding lodging case of poll code violation against the PM for making false statements against Nath.
On November 14, another video showing Kamal Nath tell Muslim leaders about how RSS polarizes votes on communal lines was tweeted by BJP leaders. The Congress has complained about the EC about that video also.