Congress rolls up sleeves for MP elections

Besides banking on the anti-incumbency factor to dislodge Shivraj Singh Chauhan's three-term government, the Congress has begun early preparations on a massive scale for the Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections that are due by the end of this year.

The Congress high command in New Delhi is awaiting the return of 150 observers and submit their report that were sent to the State to gauge the winnability factor of probable candidates based on their work and profile constituency wise.

According to party sources, while the Congress is sure of about 50 seats that are its stronghold, it has listed about 60 seats where it has not been able to win during the past several elections.

"The criteria on candidate selection will be only the winnability factor of the candidate on these seats. The party is expected to keep a liberal view on candidate selection on these seats," said the source.

A separate regional team is also being told to find out the problems are facing district and constituency wise. The team will pinpoint the problem areas for the BJP in both rural and urban areas and reflect on if a people's movement could be built on those issues in time so that it could peak during the final run up to the elections.

Taking cue from the success of its social media campaign in Gujarat elections that ran catchy campaign such as "Vikas Gando Tahyo Chhe", the party has decided to deploy a similar team in Madhya Pradesh to help build a strong social media campaign against the Shivraj Singh government.