Protests by various Congress leaders and workers that began after the party released its second list of candidates for the upcoming Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections intensified on Saturday with resignations and demonstrations against party leaders, including Madhya Pradesh Congress Committee (MPPCC) chief Kamal Nath, and Digvijaya Singh.
The Madhya Pradesh Congress’ vice-president, and the working president of its Backward Class wing Damodar Singh Yadav, in a letter to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and former president Rahul Gandhi, resigned from the party’s primary membership, accusing it of “neglecting and using” the people from Backward Classes.
“You have been talking about ‘the more the population, the more rights’ but the Congress has only fielded 23-24% candidates from backward classes in its declared lists,” he wrote.
Mr. Yadav also claimed that he had recently written to Mr. Nath and Randeep Surjewala, All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary in-charge of Madhya Pradesh, and demanded 126 tickets for Other Backward Class (OBC) leaders.
“But, we only got 55 tickets while there are 3.5 crore voters from backward classes in the State. There are only 10 lakh people from feudal background but they have gotten 35 tickets. This is grave injustice,” the disgruntled leader wrote in the letter.
Mr. Yadav also accused Mr. Singh of pushing his MLA son Jaivardhan Singh, and claimed that Mr. Nath was working under his pressure.
Mr. Yadav and his supporters also burnt effigies of Mr. Singh and Mr. Jaivardhan outside the State Congress office in Bhopal. His supporters also defaced Mr. Singh’s face on posters, and vandalised the party office.
Mr. Yadav also said that he would field his candidates in at least 15 seats in the State.
However, soon after his resignation, Mr. Yadav was fielded from Datia district’s Swede Assembly seat by the Azad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram) led by Chandrashekhar Azad Ravan.
The Congress released its second list of 88 candidates late on Thursday and has faced the heat from upset leaders and workers ever since. In the second list, the party had also replaced its candidates for three seats.
Multiple videos of protests from across the State surfaced online.
Congress candidate from Khategaon and former Minister Deepak Joshi, who had switched over from the BJP in May, was stopped by a group of men, said to be local Congress workers, while he was returning to the constituency after getting the ticket. The men showed him black flags and also broke the windshields of his vehicle.
Earlier, on Friday, supporters of several ticket hopefuls protested at Mr. Nath’s residences in Chhindwara and Bhopal.
The Congress has declared candidates on 229 of 230 seats for the Assembly polls, scheduled to take place on November 17. The notification for the elections was issued on Saturday, and the process of filing the nomination has now begun. The last date for filing nominations is October 30.
