Congress to release separate manifesto ‘Priyadarshini’ for women in Madhya Pradesh

Named after former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, a separate manifesto for women will be released in poll-bound Madhya Pradesh, Congress sources say.

Assembly elections will be held in Madhya Pradesh later this year.

Congress leader and spokesperson KK Mishra said that “apart from ‘Priyardarshini’, a common manifesto will also be released.”

Mishra added, “The idea is to address and resolve problems faced by women in MP. 80 per cent of the work has been done by the committees/sub-committees tasked with preparing the ‘Priyadarshini’ manifesto”.

Chairman of the Vachan Patra Advisory Committee, Rajendra Singh said in Bhopal, “Ten sub-committees have been formed to submit manifesto-related information pertaining to different segments of the society.”

 “A meeting of the sub-committees will be held next month,” he added.

Sources said that the decision to release the Priyadarshini manifesto for women was taken in a meeting chaired by the state unit chief Kamal Nath on Sunday.

The Congress on Sunday set up its political affairs committees for poll-bound Madhya Pradesh and Assam and appointed new office-bearers to the party units in the two states.

The 21-member political affairs committee for Madhya Pradesh includes state Congress chief Kamal Nath and former chief minister Digvijaya Singh, besides Govind Singh, Kanti Lal Bhuria, Suresh Pachouri, Arun Yadav, Ajay Singh, Vivek Tankha, Nakul Nath, Jitu Patwari, Mahender Joshi and Shoba Ozha.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge has also approved a proposal for the appointment of vice presidents, general secretaries and district presidents in the Madhya Pradesh unit of the Congress.

Congress has been out of power in Madhya Pradesh since 2003.

The party came back to power in March 2020, but CM Kamal Nath had to resign after 15 months as chief minister because the party did not have the numbers required to prove majority in the house.

As many as 22 MLAs led by Jyotitraditya Scindia had rebelled against the chief minister and the party, which led to the its collapse.