Madhya Pradesh Congress chief Kamal Nath on Saturday took a swipe at BJP over the saffron party's drubbing in Karnataka polls, saying the Grand Old Party will get blessings of Bajrang Bali in MP as well, which goes to polls later this year.
He took a dig at Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, saying BJP lost six seats in the southern state out of eight where the BJP leader had campaigned. “Chouhan canvassed in eight assembly seats in Karnataka and the BJP lost six of them. Things like this are waiting to happen in Madhya Pradesh),” Nath told party workers celebrating the Karnataka win at the MP Congress office.
Nath, under whose leadership Congress had won the 2018 Assembly polls in MP by a tender margin, said, "We are going to get the blessing of Bajrang Bali in Madhya Pradesh as well after Karnataka which is the hub of intellectuals".
"Bajrang Bali" briefly took centre-stage during the Karnataka campaign after the Congress in its manifesto said it was committed to taking firm and decisive action against individuals and organisations spreading hatred amongst communities on grounds of caste or religion and cited examples of the Popular Front of India and Bajrang Dal.
During the high-decibel campaign, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had invoked Bajrang Bali to woo voters in the southern state. "The BJP could not manage to win even half of the seats which Congress has bagged. PM Modi had left no stone unturned to win polls in Karnataka. He participated in road shows, street meetings etc (but to no avail). South India has shown the way to North India (with the poll result)," Nath said.
Earlier, addressing a gathering and a press conference in Morena, Nath said CM Chouhan was fooling people with a promise that Rs 33 lakh crore investment will come in MP. "Such investment as a whole does not come even in the country," the former Union minister said.
He said the Congress came to power in 2018 by the "power of votes" in MP, but now the government is being run by striking a deal. Nath alleged all sections of society are troubled in MP which is turned into a state of "hartals" (strikes). Recently, lawyers and doctors had struck work in the state, he said.
The 2018 elections in MP threw up a hung Assembly, with the Congress emerging as the largest party with 114 seats in the 230-member House. The BJP won 109 seats. The Congress formed a coalition government under Kamal Nath, but it fell in March 2020 after several MLAs loyal to Jyotiraditya Scindia walked out and joined the BJP, paving the way for Shivraj Singh Chouhan to return as chief minister.
