Most of the 164 nominees of Congress who lost in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections last November on Saturday (January 6) put the blame of defeat against the BJP on the EVMs, at a review meeting in Bhopal, a leader said. Some of them claimed that “internal sabotage” was the reason behind the massive loss and also demanded strict action with a few months left for the Lok Sabha elections.
In a massive show before the general elections, Madhya Pradesh Assembly polls, which were being considered as the semi final, the BJP swept the state polls to retain power by winning 163 seats out of 230, and reduced the Congress tally to 66.
Congress review meeting
Nearly 164 defeated Congress contestants took part in the marathon meeting which lasted for about six hours, chaired by Madhya Pradesh Congress chief Jitu Patwari, who himself lost the election by over 35,000 votes.
Many of them said the "EVM issue" should be raised nationwide and those in the state Congress unit responsible for the sabotage should be dealt with an iron hand if the party wants to put up a good show in the Lok Sabha elections, said the party leader, who had lost the elections, after attending the meeting.
"Majority of the defeated candidates said the battery backup of EVMs (Electronic Voting Machines) remained 99 per cent in areas where Congress lost elections, while it was 74 per cent in the booths where the party candidates won," he said.
He questioned how the battery backup of the EVMs be 99 per cent “given that the elections were held on November 17 and counting of votes took place on December 3”.
Some of the defeated contestants blamed their loss on the intra-party factionalism and demanded to deal with it as the Lok Sabha elections are looming.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP had won 28 parliamentary seats out of 29 in Madhya Pradesh.
(With PTI inputs)
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