In Madhya Pradesh, Congress seeks winnable tribal candidates from reserved Lok Sabha seats 

Kamal Nath.

New Delhi: The Madhya Pradesh chief minister, Kamal Nath, on Thursday, met ministers and Congress MLAs from the scheduled tribes, at his official residence in Shaymla Hills, Bhopal, to ask for final suggestions for names of winnable candidates from the six reserved Lok Sabha constituencies. This comes just a day before the All India Congress Committee’s meeting, in New Delhi, on Lok Sabha candidates from the state.

The Congress had lost the six reserved seats for tribals in the 2014 general election. After a decade and a half, the assembly seats statistics in the ST reserved Lok Sabha constituencies look positive for the party.

The six ST reserved seats in the state are Shahdol, Mandla, Betul, Dhar, Ratlam and Khargone. In Dhar, the Congress presently holds six assembly seats of eight and the Bhartiya Janata Party the other two.

Shobha Oza, state Congress media committee chairperson, in a conversation with Times of India, said, “The chief minister (Kamal Nath) is trying to get maximum number of seats for the Congress from the state. Out target is 20 plus constituencies. Keeping this target in focus, the chief minister has already held meetings with people’s representatives from every constituency. The Lok Sabha seats are massive, most having eight assembly seats and so candidates’ selection is made keeping workers support in mind.”

Despite Congress’s claim that tribals are its traditional vote bank, some of these tribal seats have repeatedly elected the BJP.

According to the Election Commission declared schedule for the Lok Sabha election, Madhya Pradesh will go to the poll in four phases. Polling in the state will be held on April 29, May 6, May 12 and May 19.

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