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'Few OBCs fielded': Cong media cell vice president quits

October 15, 2023 21:03 IST

Hours after the Congress party released its first list of 144 candidates for the upcoming Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections, Vice President of Congress Media Department Ajay Singh Yadav resigned from his post as fewer candidates from backward classes have been fielded by the party.

Image used only for representation. Photograph: ANI Photo

Yadav wrote a letter to state Congress president Kamal Nath and said that more than 70 per cent of the voters are from the backward class in Tikamgarh district but the party announced the candidates of a particular caste from 3 assembly constituencies. 'This is an unfair decision.'

 

'Under your leadership in Madhya Pradesh, it was always assured that this time the candidates belonging to the backward classes would be given their rights and privileges during the selection. In Tikamgarh district, there is more than 70 per cent of the voters from backward classes but people of a particular caste have been made candidates from 3 assembly constituencies. This is an unfair decision. The number of people from this particular caste is less than two per cent and all three had also lost the last election,' the vice president of the Congress Media Department said in his letter to Kamal Nath.

Yadav further alleged that it is an injustice to the people belonging to the backward classes as despite being active members of the party they've been unheard.

'This is a complete injustice decision and I cannot support this. The party workers and I, have been continuously working in the Khargapur assembly constituency with all our might in all the programs of the party. Is it our fault that we belong to the backward class, we are not heard,' Yadav said.

'My grandfather, late Thakurdas Yadav former MLA spent his entire life in the Congress party. But I'm really disappointed with the injustice that was done today and thus resigning from the post of Vice President of Madhya Pradesh Congress Committee Media Department and PCC delegate from Palera block of Khargapur constituency of Tikamgarh district,' he added in his letter.

Congress on Sunday released the first list of 144 candidates for the upcoming Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections, fielding state unit president Kamal Nath from Chhindwara.

The list includes prominent names such as former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath, Former Minister of Higher Education of Madhya Pradesh Jitu Patwari, Jaivardhan Singh, Member of the Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly Vijayalakshmi Sadho and Member of the Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly Lakshman Singh.

The counting of votes will take place on December 3.

Notably, the Kamal Nath government collapsed in March 2021 when 22 sitting Congress MLAs resigned under the leadership of Jyotiraditya Scindia and joined the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Source: ANI