New Delhi: After snatching Karnataka from the Congress-JD(S) coalition, the BJP's next offensive is likely to be in Madhya Pradesh. In the MP Assembly elections, the Congress had won 114 seats in a House of 230, a slim lead over BJP which bagged 108 seats. The Congress managed to form government with the help of four independents, two BSP legislators and one Samajwadi Party MLA.
However, acute factionalism, which had kept the party out of power for over a decade continues unabated in the Congress and BJP keeping a hawk's eye is all set to fish in the troubled waters.
Moreover, losing power in Karnataka could not have been come at a worst time for the Congress. With Rahul Gandhi stepping down as Congress president and no leader at sight to replace him, the party is not merely drifting like a rudderless ship but the morale of its workers is at its nadir.
Senior BJP leaders have been claming that a number of Congress MLAs "are in touch" with the BJP. The BJP is not merely accusing the Congress of corruptuion, massive glitches in farm loan waiver and also claimed that the state bureaucracy "is up in arms following random transfers by the Congress government."
For the Congress there are nearly four factions at loggerheads at this juncture. These warring factions belong to Jyotiraditya Scindia, Arun Yadav, Ajay Singh and the Kamal Nath-Digvijay Singh camp. While the BJP is apparently trying to take advantage of the factionalism in the Congress, the Congress leaders feel that the "soft target" for the BJP could be the independents and MLAs belonging to SP and BSP.
Sources revealed that the senior Congress leadership in the state has been organising "lunches and dinners" and holding several closed door meetings" with its MLAs to keep the "gang in good humour." However, a senior Congress leader, who wished to remain anoynymous alleged that "when the time comes, BJP could use money power to do a Karnataka in MP."
