Delhi: Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday expressed confidence that his party would win 150 seats in the Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh due to be held towards the end of the year.

He was talking to reporters after a meeting at the AICC headquarters convened by Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge to discuss the party’s strategy for the Assembly polls in the state. The meeting was attended by, among others, former state Chief Minister Kamal Nath and AICC General Secretary (Organisation) K C Venugopal.

“’We had detailed discussions on the party’s strategy for the Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh. Our internal assessment is that we will get 150 seats…what we did in Karnataka, where we won 136 seats, we are going to repeat in Madhya Pradesh,” Rahul said. The strength of the state assembly is 230.

Reacting to the Congress leader’s statement, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan claimed the BJP would win over 200 seats in the state. “The BJP is going to get more than 200 seats in Madhya Pradesh. Unko khayali pulao pakaane hai toh pakaate rahe (let him continue to dream,” he said.

The Congress formed government in the state after the Assembly polls in November 2018 since it had emerged as the single largest group.

In November 2018, elections in Madhya Pradesh were held for all constituencies of the Legislative Assembly.In March 2020, a political crisis erupted in the state due to the resignation of 22 sitting MLAs of the Congress, leading to the fall of the Kamal Nath government and the subsequent formation of the fourth Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led BJP Government.