A day after Congress wrested Karnataka by tapping into the anti-incumbency against the Basavaraj Bommai-led BJP government, the Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) president of Madhya Pradesh, Kamal Nath, said the party will fight the upcoming elections in the state mainly on the accumulated governance failures of the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government and by providing no scope for BJP leadership to polarise the polls with emotive issues.

“The Congress party will fight and oust BJP from power in Madhya Pradesh by rallying the people against the administrative and economic mess the state government has created and by placing before the people a credible alternate agenda of the state Congress for good governance,” Nath told ET on Sunday. “The assembly election in MP will be fought on the real issues of the state, and we will not allow any scope for the BJP to divert focus from these issues to any emotive and polarisation planks.”

Madhya Pradesh goes to the polls this year-end, along with Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Telangana, and Congress is looking for more victories in order to consolidate its Karnataka gain.

Nath stressed on the unity efforts of Madhya Pradesh Congress leaders and on the state Congress’ organisational preparedness. “Madhya Pradesh has been often described by many BJP leaders as the biggest laboratory of RSS. While that may be the case, the state Congress is fully geared up to fight and win elections. I have not been spending all my time in MP on any tourism but in building brick by brick our state Congress organisation to take on the RSS-BJP machinery. Equally important is the unity of the state Congress and among all its senior leaders.”

Ever since his government was toppled by BJP in March 2020 by making use of the defection of Jyotiraditya Scindia and his supporting MLAs, Nath has been working to mobilise Congress fightback.

After Congress leaders Siddaramaiah and DK Shivakumar joined forces in Karnataka to oust BJP, the focus is now on the efforts of Nath and his colleague Digvijaya Singh to rally the fight to regain Madhya Pradesh.

BJP’s defeat in Karnataka is also being seen by the Congress camp as yet another example of how PM Modi’s personality clout and BJP’s Hindutva plank can be halted in assembly elections, as has been earlier demonstrated in states including Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Delhi, West Bengal, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh. Congress leaders also cite Karnataka as the latest example of the BJP’s emotive agenda crashing against incumbency burdens of its local administrations.