BJP takes big lead over Congress in Madhya Pradesh in early trends
The BJP overcame the loss in the Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh last year to virtually sweep the Lok Sabah polls in the state.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is leading in 28 of the 29 parliamentary seats in Madhya Pradesh, months after the Congress wrested power from the saffron party in the 2018 state assembly election. If the trends hold true, the BJP will better its 2014 Lok Sabha election performance, when it had won 27 seats.
The lone seat where the Congress is leading is Chhindwara, where Nakul Nath, son of chief minister Kamal Nath, is ahead by 38,000 votes. The seat is presently held by the chief minister.
The Congress’s reversal of fortune comes less than six months after it narrowly won the Assembly elections and formed a government, ending the BJP’s 15-year-rule in the state. The Congress had won 114 seats in December 2018 elections and formed the government with the support of Bahujan Samaj Party MLAs and and independents. The BJP had bagged 109 seats.
In the high-profile Bhopal seat, controversial BJP leader and terror-accused Pragya Singh Thakur is ahead of former chief minister Digvijaya Singh by over 90,000 votes.
BJP spokesperson Rajneesh Agrawal said the state has punished the Congress for making fake promises during the Assembly elections.
Union ministers Narendra Singh Tomar and Virendra Kumar were leading by more than 11,000 votes and 85,000 votes from Morena and Tikamgarh constituencies, respectively.
Of all the constituencies, the highest lead of 3.12 lakh votes was registered by BJP’s Hoshangabad candidate Uday Pratap Singh who is up against Diwan Shailendra Singh of the Congress.
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BJP candidates -- Shankar Lalwani (Indore), Anil Firodiya (Ujjain), Ramakant Bhargava (Vidisha), Rodmal Nagar (Rajgarh), VD Sharma (Khajuraho), Mahendra Singh Solanki -- were among those leading by more than 2 lakh votes. It includes the Indore seat which was earlier represented by Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan.
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Political analyst LS Hardeniya told HT that the results in the state were unexpected and that there was a undercurrent of support for Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Congress spokesperson Shobha Oza said that the party was still analysing the results.
In the 2014 general election, the BJP had won 27 Lok Sabha seats in the state and Congress two.