Congress will win 140 seats, claims Kamal Nath

Madhya Pradesh Congress Committee president Kamal Nath on Thursday claimed that the agencies which did exit-poll of the state election told him on the phone that the Congress is winning by a comfortable majority.

The exit polls of the five states — Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram, Rajasthan and Telangana will be broadcast on Friday after polling in the last two states.

Talking to newsmen after a meeting of all 229 Congress candidates at the state party headquarters, Kamal Nath claimed that the Congress is winning 140 out of 230 seats in the state. Counting for all five states including Madhya Pradesh will be held on December 11.

Admitting that the Congress committed some strategic mistakes in Gujarat and Karnataka Assembly polls, the state Congress chief said, “Having learnt useful lessons from the past mistakes, we chalked out and implemented a new strategy for Madhya Pradesh.”

When asked about possible chief minister if the Congress comes to power, Kaman Nath retorted, “when I am not worried about it why are you so much worried ?”

On reminding the cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Wednesday, the veteran Congress leader quipped that Chouhan has only 3-4 days left as chief minister, so let him say whatever he wants to say to his heart content.

Under Kamal Nath's chairmanship, Congress candidates discussed nitty-gritty related to counting. Legal experts apprised the candidates about rules of counting.

AICC legal cell president and Rajya Sabha member Vivek Tankha was also present in the meeting.

The candidates were told to be careful about EVM security. Before the meeting, Kamal Nath had mobile phones of all the participants in the meeting switched off to ensure its proceedings is not recorded. In view of the leaks of several video clips figuring Kamal Nath in the media ahead of the polling in the state, the Congress is wary of recurrence of such a leak.

The BJP is scheduled to hold a similar meeting of its candidates on December 8.