Ex-MP CM Kamal Nath claims 'Votes of TV serial watchers win elections, not news watchers'

In a bizarrely condescending comment, ex-Madhya Pradesh CM Kamal Nath on Sunday, advised Congress workers to identify what the general public wants. Addressing Divisional Congress Worker's Conference in Indore, Nath claimed that votes of people who watched TV serials mattered, not those who watched news channels while seeking to win elections. Congress recently failed to win a majority in by-polls in Madhya Pradesh, concluding Jyotiraditya Scindia's rebellion with a success.

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Madhya Pradesh crisis & bypolls

The crisis in the Kamal Nath government started when Congress alleged BJP of poaching 4 MLAs - two of which returned to Kamal Nath's folds. Soon, 22 MLAs including 6 cabinet ministers - loyal to Jyotiraditya Scindia - quit the party, reducing the Congress to a minority government with 92 MLAs. Delivering a massive blow to Congress, Scindia resigned from Congress and then joined the BJP. After Nath stepped down as CM and the Madhya Pradesh Speaker accepted all 22 MLAs' resignations, all of them promptly joined BJP. Three more Congress MLAs joined BJP since then - vacating 27 seats in the Assembly.

Scindia's rebellion paid off with 12 rebel MLAs being given cabinet portfolios in July's cabinet expansion. Apart from these 12, two rebel MLAs -Tulsi Silawat and Govind Singh Rajput had already been sworn in shortly after CM Shivraj Chouhan took oath, while Scindia himself has been elected to the Rajya Sabha. He has also been included in several important parliamentary panels. 

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Leading the charge in getting his loyalists re-elected, Scindia time and again targeted Kamal Nath and veteran Congress MP Digvijaya Singh in his many campaigns across MP. He often claimed that Kamal Nath put the Madhya Pradesh government office (Vallabh Bhavan) under lockdown for 15 months. Critiquing Kamal Nath, Scindia claimed that Congress has always done fraudulent politics by cheating the people, doing corruption and illegal mining work. Congress termed Scindia a 'traitor' and 'blackmailer' but was not vociferous in its by-poll campaigning as BJP.

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Subsequently, in the bypolls, Scindia managed to get 19 rebels re-elected, while Congress barely won 10 seats in the 30-seat bypolls. Recently, in the third cabinet expansion, two more Scindia loyalists got cabinet berths - taking the total to 15 rebel ministers. Scindia now holds sway over half of 4-term CM Shivraj Chouhan's cabinet and recently defended the Farm Laws and the Budget in the Rajya Sabha.