Madhya Pradesh election: For Congress 'samanvay' is the key word this time

The pressure from workers, who see this as a now-or-never situation for the Congress, has forced adversarial heavyweights Kamal Nath, Digvijaya Singh and Jyotiraditya Scindia to close ranks

The Congress’s campaign in Madhya Pradesh might lack the punch and bite that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had packed into its offensive against Digvijaya Singh in 2003, except for the barbs thrown on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah by Rahul Gandhi. Rhetoric has given way to more hard-headed considerations in the Congress’ blueprint, underpinned to one word, “samanway” (coordination), that essentially called upon the party’s heavyweights Kamal Nath, Jyoritaditya Scindia and Digvijaya Singh to work as a “fighting force” and not as “squabbling rivals”.

Vinay Bakliwal, the Congress’ Indore working president, says: “Ultimately, it was