JABALPUR, May 6 (PTI): Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will kickstart the Congress’s campaign for the Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections from Jabalpur city in June, a party functionary said on Saturday.
Jabalpur is the centre of Mahakoshal region which has a sizable tribal presence.
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Assembly elections are due in the BJP-ruled state by year-end.
In the last elections, the Congress had won 11 out of 13 seats reserved for Scheduled Tribes in the Jabalpur division.
“Priyanka Gandhi will launch the party’s campaign and `Sankalp 2023’ on June 12 here,” Jabalpur mayor and city Congress chief Jagat Bahadur Singh told PTI.
The Congress general secretary will hold a two-km roadshow in the city and address a rally, Singh said.
People in Mahakoshal area feel neglected by the BJP, he claimed, adding, “We did well (last time) in the area. This time around we are going to sweep elections in the region.”
Asked why Priyanka Gandhi particularly chose Jabalpur to launch the party’s campaign, Congress Rajya Sabha member Vivek Tankha said Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra had not passed through this region though it covered Malwa and Central India.
A rally in Mahakoshal region would help the Congress in neighbouring Vindh and Bundelkhand regions, he said.
There is a strong anti-incumbency sentiment in the region where a large number of tribals, traditional Congress voters, live, Tankha added.
Mahakoshal or Jabalpur division has eight districts — Jabalpur, Katni, Seoni, Narsinghpur, Balaghat, Mandla, Dindori and Chhindwara.
In the 2018 Assembly polls, the Congress had won 24 seats while the BJP had won 13 out of 38 Assembly segments in the region. One seat was won by an independent candidate who was close to the Congress.
In 2013, the Congress had fared badly in the region, winning 13 seats to the BJP’s 24. The saffron party had come to power in the state then.
Manish Gupta, senior journalist and resident editor of Hindi daily Dainik Bhaskar’s Jabalpur edition, said the party which performs well in at least three out of the six divisions of MP would come to power.
“It is a challenge for the Congress to keep its seats intact in the coming elections in Mahakoshal,” he said.
He recalled that in the Vindh region, the BJP won 24 seats while the Congress managed to win only six seats last time.
The 2018 polls threw up a hung Assembly though the Congress emerged as the largest party with 114 seats in the 230-member House. The BJP won 109 seats.
The Congress formed a coalition government led by Kamal Nath, but it fell in March 2020 after several MLAs loyal to Jyotiraditya Scindia rebelled.
