By Sundeep Pouranik

Bhopal, May 24 (IANS) The Congress has adopted an aggressive political strategy in Madhya Pradesh after its recent victory in the Damoh Assembly by-elections, with party leaders, including former Chief Minister Kamal Nath, intensifying their attacks on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) governments in the state and at the Centre.

In Damoh, the defeat of sitting Congress MLA Rahul Lodhi, who switched over to the BJP last year and contested on its ticket, to the Congress' Ajay Tandon came as a shot to the party.

With the state hit hard by Covid, Congress leaders launched a blistering political attack on the BJP government for its failure to tackle the pandemic. Even the filing of a case against Congress MLA and former cabinet minister, Umang Singhar, for abetting a woman's suicide saw party leaders rally behind him and go on an all-out offensive against the BJP.

Kamal Nath, who claimed that more than one lakh people had died in the state during March and April this year due to the pandemic, also accused the BJP government of political vendetta by filing a case against Singhar and said that he too has a CD against the BJP.

His aggressive stance has sent out a message to the workers at the ground level that they must raise their voice against the BJP government. With bypolls for three state assemblies and one Lok Sabha constituency along with urban civic bodies and panchayats polls coming up ahead, Congress workers and the party as a whole have adopted an aggressive approach.

Political experts believe that Congress has realised that it is competing with BJP's organizational machinery in the state. As the BJP organisation is steadily intensifying its preparation on the ground, grooming workers from the younger generation, the Congress has realised that the BJP can be fought only when there is enthusiasm among the Congress workers and leaders, they say. The Congress has been forced to change its overall outlook to match the BJP as an organisation, they claim.