Jyotiraditya Scindia
Separate posters of Congress leaders Kamal Nath and Jyotiraditya Scindia projecting them as the next chief ministers of Madhya Pradesh that goes to polls later this year are being circulated in the social media.
Scindia is the state Congress Campaign Committee chief while Nath is the state unit president of the party.
A poster showing Congress chief Rahul Gandhi and Nath together reads: "Rahul Bhaiyya ka sandesh, Kamal Nath sambhalo Pradesh". (It's the message of Rahul than Nath takes care of Madhya Pradesh)
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The poster, with the hashtag KamalnathNextMPCM, is trending on Facebook and various WhatsApp groups. It bears the name of 'Madhya Pradesh Congress Yuva Mitra Mandal' as "Nivedak".
The poster bearing images of Scindia and Rahul beside the Congress party symbol reads: "Desh mein chalegi vikas ki andhi. Pradesh mein Scindia, Kendra mein Gandhi" (A storm of development will come which will be rode by Gandhi in Centre and Scindia in MP).
The poster has the name of "Srimant Scindia Fans Club". Former Union minister Nath is an MP from Chhindwara seat while Scindia is the Congress chief whip in the Lok Sabha.
Nath was appointed as the president of state Congress by Gandhi in April this year. The Congress has not projected any chief ministerial
candidate in MP, going to polls later this year, given the factionalism in the state party unit.
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While the Congress blamed the ruling BJP for preparing and circulating the posters, the saffron party said it was a "poster war" between two factions of the opposition party.
"The BJP is behind these posters. The saffron party wants to paint the Congress in poor light," alleged state Congress chief spokesman Manak Agrawal.
"The BJP very well knows that its days are numbered in MP as the Congress stands united. The IT cell of the BJP is behind this mischievous campaign," he said.
BJP state IT cell in-charge Shivraj Singh Dabi said the party has nothing to do with the "poster war".
"We have nothing to do with the poster war. People know that the Congress party is a divided house," he said. When asked whether the Congress will file a police complaint against the BJP's IT Cell, Agrawal said there was no point in doing so because nothing will come out of it.
"The law-enforcers will not act in the matter given that the BJP is the ruling party in the state. On the contrary, they will harass the complainants by making them do rounds of police stations," he said.
There have been talks of internal factionalism in the state Congress and its workers are said to be divided among four factions -- headed by general secretary Digvijay Singh, Nath, Scindia and Suresh Pachori.
Ahead of polls, the BJP and the Congress have dug in their hills to counter each other's agenda on social media. Dabi had said last month that about 65,000 'cyber warriors' have been deployed by the BJP in the last three months and 5,000 more will be deputed shortly.
Congress' IT cell in-charge Dharmendra Bajpai had said that the party has set up a team of around 4,000 'Rajiv Ke Sipahi' (named after their leader and former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi credited with the digital revolution in India) to battle it out against the BJP on social media.
The Congress has been out of power in the central state since 2003. Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has been leading the state since November 2005.
