The Congress in Madhya Pradesh on Saturday kicked off its campaign for 27 Assembly bypolls with state unit president Kamal Nath offering prayers at famous Baglamukhi temple at Nalkheda in Agar Malwa district.
Nath was accompanied by MLAs Sajjan Singh Verma and Jaivardhan Singh, who had earlier served as ministers in the erstwhile Congress-led government.
"We opened our campaign by offering prayers at the temple for prosperous Madhya Pradesh," said state Congress spokesman Bhupendra Gupta.
Nath also addressed a public meeting in support of Congress nominee from Agar (SC) constituency, Vipin Wankhede.
The Agar byelection became necessary due to the death of sitting BJP MLA Manohar Untwal who had defeated Wankhede in the 2018 assembly elections.
The Congress had on Friday announced names of 15 candidates for the bypolls, whose schedule is yet to be announced.
Meanwhile, the ruling BJP said it would launch campaign once the Election Commission announces a formal schedule for the bypolls.
"We are going to announce our candidates and formally launch our election campaign after the schedule for the 27 seats is announced," said Madhya Pradesh chief BJP spokesman Dipak Vijayvargiya.
The 27 seats fell vacant following resignation of 25 MLAs of the Congress over the last five months and the death of two legislators earlier.
While 22 of the 25 legislators exited then Kamal Nath government and joined the BJP in March this year under the leadership of Jyotiraditya Scindia, leading to its collapse, three more MLAs resigned later and joined the saffron party.
Two seats had fallen vacant after deaths of sitting MLAs.
