Congress meet decides caste survey will be its main poll plank in MP

The Congress' central election committee on Saturday held deliberations on the names of candidates for about 140 assembly seats in Madhya Pradesh and also decided that the party's main poll plank will be the conduct of a caste survey in the state.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, former party chiefs Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, AICC general secretary organisation K C Venugopal and general secretary in charge of the state Randeep Surjewala, state party chief Kamal Nath and members of the central election committee attended the meeting.

"The Central Election Committee (CEC) meeting was held (in Delhi) today. We discussed candidates' names for about 140 seats. The names will be finalised in the next 6-7 days," Nath told reporters after the meeting.

Surjewala said the issue of a caste survey was discussed at the meeting.

"We have decided that (conducting) a caste census in Madhya Pradesh will be our main agenda," Surjewala told reporters.

The election to the 230-member assembly in Madhya Pradesh is likely to be held in November-December. The election schedule is yet to be announced.

In the 2018 assembly polls, the Congress had won 114 seats, while the BJP got 109.

However, the Congress government fell after many MLAs under the leadership of Jyotiraditya Scindia, who later became a Union minister, joined the BJP.

The BJP returned to power in March 2020 with Shivraj Singh Chouhan as chief minister for a fresh term. The BJP's current strength in the assembly is 127.