By
L.S. Herdenia
BHOPAL: Despite the voters failing to
give clear majority, Congress has put together the numbers to form the
government in Madhya Pradesh with the support of BSP and independents. And this
is s a huge setback to the BJP, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party
president Amit Shah, who held marathon public meetings during the election
campaign. But they proved to be unequal to the task as BJP fell short of
majority. The slogan given by BJP for 2018 Assembly elections was ‘Abki Baar
200 Paar’ (This time cross 200) but it proved to be a ‘Mission Impossible’.
PM
Modi had addressed a public meeting in Vidisha but the BJP candidate there
could not win the seat, which was held by the party for the past 46 years.
Similarly, Modi and Shah held rallies and public meetings in Indore, but it was
not enough to secure victory for the BJP candidate in Indore-1. The duo, once
considered invincible, could not stop two Assembly constituencies in Jabalpur
falling in Congress’s lap.
After
PM Modi, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath was the star campaigner,
who missed no opportunity to make controversial statements. Yogi was busy
trying to polarise the polls in favour of BJP but the results proved otherwise.
In fact, in all the states where Yogi campaigned, the party slipped. He
participated in six rallies in Chhattisgarh, nine rallies in Madhya Pradesh and
11 in Rajasthan. All the three states were lost to BJP. He spent more than 20
days away from UP.
The
most interesting feature of the result is that, barring Vindhya Pradesh, BJP
failed to get a majority in all the regions. For example Gwalior-Chambal region
has a total 31 seats, out of which BJP had won 21 and Congress nine in 2013.
But this time Congress won 24 and BJP 6.
The
Malwa-Nimar region has always been considered a stronghold of the BJP. In 2013
it won 57 out of the 66 seats and Congress had to manage with 9. But this time
BJP could retain only 28 seats, with the Congress tally going up to 35.
The
central region has a total 36 seats. In the last election Congress won 6 but
this time it registered victory in 13 seats. The BJP tally came down from 30 to
23. In Bundelkhand region in 2013 BJP had 21 seats and Congress had 8. But this
time BJP won 18 and Congress 10. As for Mahakaushal, the total number of seats
is 38. In 2013 BJP won 25 and Congress 13 but in the latest election BJP has
been reduced to 11 while Congress bagged 24.
Vindhya
region is the only one where BJP won the majority of seats. In fact, it won
more seats than it did in 2013. In the outgoing assembly, BJP had 17 out of
total 30 and now it has 25. The Congress tally came down to 6 from 11 in 2013.
Among the losers is Rahul Singh, who is the leader of opposition, from Churhat,
a Congress bastion since the time of Arjun Singh. Rahul Singh is Arjun Singh’s
son.
Congress
was most hopeful to win more seats in Vindhya region this time. But it received
a jolt as it could not even retain those seats which it had won earlier. This
was the only region where BJP increased its tally.
The
party could not retain its seats like Gudh, Mauganj, Beohari and Nagod and
could secure only one constituency each in districts like Rewa, Sidhi and
Singrauli. It could only win seats in districts like Satna and Shahdol, while
it wrested Satna and Annupur from BJP. Interestingly, Congress president Rahul
Gandhi had participated in multiple roadshows in this region. Prime Minister
Modi participated in two meetings in Rewa and Shahdol districts, which helped
BJP, according to sources. Besides losing majority, BJP suffered a major
setback when 13 ministers out of the 31 member Chouhan cabinet lost. They
include Archana Chitnis, Umashankar Gupta, Antar Singh Arya, Jai Bhan Singh
Pawaiya, Lal Singh Arya, Rustam Singh, Deepak Joshi, Naraya Singh Kushwaha and
Om Prakash Dhurve. From the Congress side important losers are former Union
minister Suresh Pachori, Deputy Speaker Rajendra Singh, and leader of
opposition Rahul Singh.
Till
late night on Tuesday, the state stared at a hung Assembly after none of the
two major political parties could get a majority. But in a strategic move the
Congress party staked claim to form its government with the support of
independents, even before the results were officially declared by the Election
Commission.
State
Congress president Kamal Nath sent a letter to Governor Anandiben Patel late
night saying “the Congress party has emerged as single largest party with
majority support as all the independents have in addition assured support to
the Congress party”. The letter was mailed to the Raj Bhawan and hard copy
was delivered by hand by Congress spokesperson JP Dhanopia.
Congress
acted swiftly to avoid a replay of Goa or Karnataka elections. In Goa, Congress
had failed to form the government despite being the single largest party in
2017.
Throughout
Tuesday the lead for both parties swung like a pendulum and emotions were
racing like it happens in a T-20 cricket match. Both the parties till late
night were short of the magic figure of 116 seats, with the Congress ahead of
BJP.
EVMs
are continuously proving to be a major embarrassment for the Election
Commission. Eleven machines were found ‘not clear’ (after the mock poll) when
they were opened on the day of counting. Earlier, 20 more machines were
reported to have erred, which brings the overall count of erring EVMs to 175
located in 65 seats spread across 21 districts. (IPA Service)
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