Congress considering bringing in starlets, social media icons for MP assembly polls

BHOPAL: The weakest assembly seats for the Congress may well see the most surprising faces as candidates of the grand old party in the year-end polls in BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh.

According to sources, the party is exploring the possibility of fielding newcomers, including young faces from the film and television world (who may be new to politics, but their families have been sworn Congress ideology backers from generations) on the weakest seats.

The new candidates may also include social media icons/influencers and celebrity orators, who have a big fan following. These saffron strongholds on which BJP has been invincible for decades are particularly spread in Malwa-Nimar, Bundelkhand, Vindhya and Central MP regions.

There are around 66 weak seats, which the Congress has failed to win since the last two to six or eight polls. Such seats, include Govindpura seat of Bhopal which has been BJP’s citadel since 1980, Rehli in Sagar district of Bundelkhand, where the party has been losing to BJP since 1985, Indore-II, Khandwa (BJP winning since 1990), Indore-II and Sagar seats (saffron forts since 1993), Naryawali, Indore-V, Neemuch and Jawad (BJP winning since 2003) and Mandsaur and Narela-Bhopal (won by sitting BJP MLAs since 2008).

State Congress president Kamal Nath has made it clear multiple times that candidates in the weakest seats would be decided first (six months before polls). Former CM and Rajya Sabha member Digvijaya Singh has been tasked with preparing the party for these seats. He is regularly touring these constituencies and holding open dialogues with party workers there. State Congress sources also claimed that the party may not only finalize candidates first on the 60-odd weak seats but also on 30-40 seats, which are its strongest bets.