“Congress should talk about development, progress, not caste”: Outgoing minister Silawat says BJP poised to return in MP

Indore (Madhya Pradesh) [India]: Sitting Madhya Pradesh minister Tulsi Silawat, who is bidding for a fresh mandate from the Sanwer Assembly constituency, on Tuesday said the ruling BJP was on course to return to power in the November 17 sate elections.

Speaking to media on Tuesday, Silawat thanked the BJP leadership for giving her a ticket to contest the Sanwer seat, saying, “The BJP is on course to forming the government here again.

I am grateful to my party leadership for reposing its trust in me and giving me an opportunity to seek a fresh term from the Sanwer constituency. We will work to ensure a win for the BJP by a record margin. I will do my best to live up to the electoral trust that my party has reposed in me.”

On the Congress adopting a resolution to conduct a nationwide caste census if it comes to power at the Centre, the BJP leader said, “Instead of caste, they should take about development and progresss. Congress ruled the country for years but did nothing for people belonging to the backward sections.”

Silawat fought the 2018 Assembly polls on a Congress ticket and became a minister in the Kamal Nath government. A trusted loyalist of Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, he, however, changed his political stripes and embraced saffron after the BJP toppled the Congress government.

The Election Commission, earlier, announced the schedule for the Assembly elections in five states.

The polls for Mizoram Assembly will be held on Nomber 7, Madha Pradesh will poll for the Assembly on November 17, Congress-ruled Chhattisgarh on November 7 and 17, Madhya Pradesh on November 17, and Rajasthan and Telangana on November 23 and 30.

The counting of votes in all states will take place on December 3.

Madhya Pradesh assembly polls will pit the major political players against each other in a battle for 230 Assembly seats.

In the 2018 elections, Congress won 114 seats with a vote share of 41.5 per cent while BJP fnished marginally behind, at 109 seats with a vote share of 41.6 per cent.

Congress government, which was reduced to a minority regime, eventually fell in 2020 following a rebellion by then party leader Scindia along with his band of loyalists.

The BJP returned to power, with Shivraj Singh Chouhan taking oath as chief minister.