A split in I.N.D.I.A bloc in Madhya Pradesh surfaced after coalition constituent Samajwadi Party (SP) fielded a candidate against Congress in the by-election for the Budhni assembly seat. The Samajwadi Party declared Arjun Arya, who resigned from Congress two days ago, its candidate from the high-profile constituency. The seat fell vacant after Union Minister and former Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan resigned from the assembly.
Akhilesh Yadav-led party asked Congress for one of the two seats as per coalition 'dharma'. Even after several rounds of discussions between Congress state president Jitu Patwari and SP leadership, the allies failed to reach an agreement and Congress fielded candidates in Budhni and Vijaypur assembly by-elections.
Samajwadi Party spokesperson Yash Bhartiya said Congress does not learn a lesson from its defeat and the grand old party also misled Arjun Arya who was seeking a Congress ticket.
Congress is a party which does not want to take cooperation from allies and does not want to give either and it does not learn a lesson from its past debacles whether it is Haryana or Madhya Pradesh, he added.
The by-polls in Madhya Pradesh will take place on November 13 and the count of votes on November 23.
Congress fields candidates for both seats in MP
Congress fielded Rajkumar Patel for the by-election of the Budhni assembly and Mukesh Malhotra for the Vijaypur seat.
Who is Arjun Arya?
Arjun Arya, a farmer leader, has been the state secretary in Congress and has been demanding a ticket in the assembly elections for a long time. But when Congress did not give him a ticket, he got angry and joined the Samajwadi Party. Arya was also in the Samajwadi Party in 2018. He spoke to SP chief Akhilesh Yadav on October 14 and expressed his desire to join the party, after which he was inducted into the party.
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