Congress in Madhya Pradesh united: Digvijay

Says conditions are right now not in favour of the BJP despite reports appearing in the media

The Congress is united in Madhya Pradesh in this elections and this will help the party, its General Secretary Digvijay Singh said but refused to discuss who will be its Chief Minister.

"The situation is different this time and the Congress campaign has definitely become a united effort which should help the party," he told the news agency.

Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, who is the chairman of the Congress campaign committee for MP polls, is widely speculated to be the chief ministerial candidate.

Singh said the party's newly-elected MLAs would choose the Chief Minister if the party wins the November 25 Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh.

"The Congress has always followed the practice of letting newly-elected MLAs choose the Chief Minister and this will be done in Madhya Pradesh also," he said.

Singh said that there was anger among the people of Madhya Pradesh against the BJP even during the time of 2008 Assembly elections but the Congress lost as it was not able to run a proper campaign then.

The Congress General Secretary said that it would be difficult to a hazard a guess as to how many seats which party would win until both announce the names of their candidates.

Singh, however, said conditions were right now not in favour of the BJP despite reports appearing in the media.

He said seeds for all the development that was visible right now in Madhya Pradesh were laid down during his Chief Ministership from 1993 to 2003.

The Congress General Secretary said the Plant Load Factor which had risen from 42 to 73% when he was Chief Minister had now dropped to 56%.

Singh said Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan can talk about a lot of schemes but they had not succeeded in benefiting the people.

He said Chouhan is also fond of saying that development that had taken place during the BJP rule was much more than that had taken place during his tenure.

"But if this was the case, why was Chouhan running away from a public debate with him on who had done more for Madhya Pradesh," he asked.

"I have said many times that Chouhan must come and debate with me on any forum as to who has done more for Madhya Pradesh but so far, he has not responded," he said.