Madhya Pradesh Congress chief Kamal Nath, who will be the top contender for CM post if the party wins, set up a “fact-finding committee” over the statue collapse, which has submitted its report saying the idols were of “poor quality”. (Twitter/ MP Congress)

God and greed — the Congress believes it has the perfect formula to take on the BJP in Madhya Pradesh, as the toppling of statues to gusty winds in the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government’s showpiece Mahakaleshwar temple corridor continues to raise dust.

The Congress has quickly come up with a “50% commission” charge to claim corruption as the reason for the collapse of six of the seven idols built to portray Saptarishis or the seven big rishis (saints). The corridor has a total of 160 statues.

For once ahead of the BJP in poll games, the Congress has a good example before it from Karnataka, where its “40% commission government” tag against the ruling BJP stuck, and struck gold.

The first phase of the Mahakal Lok Corridor Project, as part of which the statues came up, was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi only in October last year, amidst much fanfare. Not only is it fair to raise questions over the quality of the construction, the Congress believes, but also over how the BJP has hurt people’s “religious sentiments” in the process.