Bhopal: The ruling BJP appears to be steaming full speed ahead towards scripting a big victory in Madhya Pradesh, as indicated by trends available after the initial three hours of counting of votes on Sunday for the state Assembly poll.230 Assembly constituencies.
The BJP has been in power almost uninterruptedly since 2003, save a 15-month hiatus when the Congress formed the govenrment after emerging as the single largest party. However, the Congress had to bow out of office in March 2020, as MLAs loyal to Jyotirdiya Scindia revolted and crossed over to the BJP.
As per the latest trend, the BJP is leading in 157 and the principal-opposition Congress in 69, it was officially learnt.
The MP verdict also brings out that incumbent Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has clearly beaten anti-incumbency.
Chouhan, several of his ministerial colleagues and almost every other saffron camp stalwart are ahead in their respective areas. The Congress’ situation is quite contrary as – barring state unit head and erstwhile chief minister Kamal Nath – its commanders are trailing, including the Assembly’s Leader of the Opposition Govind Singh (Lahar), Rajya Sabha Member Digvijaya Singh’s son Jaivardhan Singh (Raghogarh) and former state minister Jitu Patwari (Rau).
Union Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister Narendra Singh Tomar is leading in Dimani, Union Minister of State for Jal Shakti and Food-Processing Industries Prahalad Singh Patel in Narsinghpur, parliamentarian Ganesh Singh in Satna and BJP General Secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya in Indore-1. A notable exception is Union MoS for Steel and Rural Development Faggansingh Kulaste who is trailing in Niwas.
Chouhan wrote on social media that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “skillful leadership” paved the way for this success.
Counting was on in 52 district headquarters for revealing the electoral fortunes of 2,533 candidates including 252 women who are in the fray for formation of a new House.
Three-tier security arrangements are in place and randomisation of counting personnel was also three-tier.
A total of 51,259 voters above 80 years of age and 12,093 differently-able ones exercised their franchise from their respective dwellings.
As many as 4,369 tables have been placed for electronic voting machines and 692 for postal votes.
The turnout was 77.82 percent during the single-phase voting on November 17 as compared to 75.63 percent in 2018.
The ruling BJP and the principal-opposition Congress fielded their representatives for all seats whereas other figures included Bahujan Samaj Party 181; Samajwadi Party 71 and 1,166 independents. An electorate exceeding 5.60 crore – including more than 2.71 crore women and 1,292 of the third gender – were eligible to participate in the democratic exercise.
