Former Union minister Aslam Sher Khan today claimed that the Congress will be defeated the fourth consecutive time in Madhya Pradesh in the 2018 Assembly polls if its "indecisive central leaders sitting in air-conditioned rooms" did not take a call on the state leadership of the party.
"Uncertainty has been prevailing over the replacement of state Congress chief Arun Yadav for the last one year. There are talks that Yadav is going to be replaced either by former Union minister Kamal Nath or the party's Chief Whip in the Lok Sabha, Jyotiraditya Scindia. But, nothing has happened as yet," Khan, a former Olympian hockey player, told reporters here.
He claimed that Nath and Scindia had already expressed their desire to shoulder the responsibility of the party's state unit to the central leadership.
"Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her deputy Rahul Gandhi are not taking any call in this regard.
"There was an impression for a long time that the Congress in Madhya Pradesh was at the receiving end due to groupism in the party. But now, it is clear that the party is in a mess as the central leadership is least bothered about the state.
"I want the Congress to emerge victorious in the 2018 Assembly polls," said Khan.
When pointed out that Yadav and Leader of Opposition in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly Ajay Singh were doing their jobs effectively by staging protests against state government's failures, he said such agitations with "50-100 people" would not change the fortune of the Congress in the state.
Stating that the state Congress leaders should be able to attract a crowd of at least 50,000 while staging a protest, Khan said, "A tall leader is needed to match the stature of (Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh) Chouhan."
"Primarily, due to the indecisive central leadership, the party is losing at least 10,000 votes on a daily basis in Madhya Pradesh.
"If the Congress wants to continue with the present state leadership, it should come clean on it and put an end to the suspense," he added.
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