Projecting Chief Ministerial candidate in Punjab was a strategy by the Congress confined only to that state, Leader of Opposition in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly, Ajay Singh said here today.
“The party projected Captain Amarinder Singh as the Chief Ministerial candidate ahead of assembly polls in Punjab as a strategy for that state. But there is no such tradition in the party as far as other states are concerned,” Singh told reporters here at the Meet The Press programme organised by the Central Press Club.
Singh was responding to the demand raised by the Chief Whip in the Lok Sabha and senior Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia that Congress should project a face in the poll-bound states as it had done in Punjab, which paid rich dividends.
When asked about reports of change of guard in MP Congress, he said that such talks were created by media.
“I have not heard any such thing and at present Arun Yadav is the State Congress President and the party would contest the elections in his leadership only,” he said.
Answering a question, Singh said that he is personally in favour of conducting elections through ballot papers only.
“As far as I know elections are being conducted the world over through ballot papers only,” he said.
“If the Election Commission still insists on conducting elections through Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) enabled EVMs, then it should tally the results of ballot unit with that of paper slips to ensure accuracy and avoid any doubt,” he added.
When asked about recent by-poll results at Bandhavgarh and Ater seats in Madhya Pradesh, Singh said that the victory of BJP in Bandhavgarh by over 25,000 votes was not even expected by the saffron party.
“I am unable to digest this result as, after the polls, even BJP was not expecting such a huge victory,” he said.
The results at Ater were fair as the poll body has cross-checked each and every EVM machine at all booths.
Assembly elections in MP are scheduled in 2018.