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The Congress in Madhya Pradesh feels that the Modi-Advani controversy in BJP will help it reap electoral dividends in the Assembly and Lok Sabha polls.
"Congress is bound to gain in Madhya Pradesh with the rift between Modi and Advani becoming wide open and also between Modi and state Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan," Congress MP unit vice president Manak Agrawal said.
Advani had recently praised Chouhan, saying his humility was akin to that of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. While Modi transformed a healthy state into an excellent one, Chouhan successfully turned around 'a BIMARU' state into a developed one, he had said.
"The seed of differences between Modi and Chouhan was sown by Advani long back and it will have its impact in the Assembly polls due later this year.
"Besides, the way BJP's top leaders were fighting at the national level on the issue of Prime Ministership and the way Advani reacted after the elevation of Modi...People are watching everything closely and it is bound to benefit Congress not just in Assembly elections but also in Lok Sabha polls," he said.
However, BJP spokesman and MLA Vishwas Sarang said there was no rift between Modi, Advani and Chouhan and the Congress is just "day-dreaming" on the issue.
"There is no groupism in the party and neither Modi nor Advani or for that matter Chouhan are not opponents of each other," Sarang said
The party has set its eyes on Mission-2013 (Assembly polls) and 2014 Lok Sabha polls and it will emerge victorious in these elections, he claimed.
He said that Congress should stop day-dreaming and rather tell people why so much of development took place under the BJP government and why no development took place when it was in power.
"The party will fight the 2013 polls on Chouhan's development agenda and will return to power for the third time in a row," he said.
