'Winning back Muslims' support is challenge'

BHOPALL Winning back the support of Muslims and backward classes will be the biggest challenge for Congress in this year's assembly polls in Madhya Pradesh, said a senior Congress leader here.
    
"The Congress had got only two seats out of the present 47 tribal seats, with the bulk going to the BJP and some to the Gondwana Ganatantra Party," Chairman of the Congress campaign committee for the polls, Ajay Singh said.
    
He said if Uma Bharti's Bharatiya Janashakti Party can pose problems for the BJP, the Congress will also face some tough times due to Mayawati's BSP.
    
"The two ladies can damage the Congress and the BJP to the same extent and hence the two parties will be back at par," Singh, who is Union Minister Arjun Singh's son, said.     

Answering a question, he said the Congress was not worried about what was happening between Uma Bharti's party and the BJP.
    
Asked about the challenges being faced by the BJP in the run-up to the elections, he said that shortage of power was the biggest irritant for it. He admitted that corruption, one of the biggest problems being faced by the BJP in Madhya Pradesh, was a lesser issue than lack of availability of electricity.
    
Singh said although there was corruption at various levels in the government, people feel that their work were not being done. "The BJP government in the state believes in corruption without delivery," he said.
    
About Congress chances in the polls, the party leader said a lot depends on those who ultimately get the tickets to contest them.