The Youth Congress elections ended on Friday and Harshit Singhai was “elected” by 12 votes.
Bhopal:
The Congress, in an embarrassing slip in Madhya Pradesh, elected an office bearer who has long left the party and is now in the BJP. The leader’s “election” has now been cancelled but the blunder is being held up by Congress critics as symptomatic of the party’s disconnect with ground realities.
On Friday, Harshit Singhai, a BJP leader, was stunned when he received congratulatory messages over being appointed youth Congress’s general secretary in Jabalpur. That is because he had quit the Congress back in March, when scores of party MLAs and workers followed Jyotiraditya Scindia to the BJP.
Yet, the update had not reflected in the Congress’s records in nine months.
The Youth Congress elections ended on Friday and Harshit Singhai was “elected” by 12 votes.
“Most laughable is the fact that no one was interested in the polls, yet I was elected general secretary. I left the Congress on March 10 with Scindia-ji. The last time I participated in the Youth Congress polls was three years ago,” Harshit Singhai told reporters.
He explained that the polls took place three years after he had submitted his nomination papers. They were first stalled because of the Madhya Pradesh election in 2018 and later because of the national election.
“I requested the party that my name be dropped from the Youth Congress polls but nothing was done. When I called again, they asked me to send a mail explaining the circumstances in which I left the party. I had written to Kamal Nath (former Chief Minister) and Rahul Gandhi. This is what the Youth Congress has done across Madhya Pradesh.”
Former state Youth Congress chief Kunal Chaudhary accused Mr Singhai of resorting to “cheap tactics” and lying about withdrawing his nomination.
