Madhya Pradesh Assembly Election Results: MP heads for photo finish; Congress seeks Governor appointment
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Background
Madhya Pradesh: The counting of votes for the 2018 Assembly Election in Madhya Pradesh began at 8am on Tuesday. The battle is for 230 assembly seats in the state, the voting for which took place across 65,341 polling stations on November 28. The party which is able to bag 116 seats will take over the throne which has been ruled by Bharatiya Janta Party for last three terms. The state assembly has 35 seats reserved for Scheduled castes and 47 for the Scheduled Tribes.
The fight is majorly between ruling BJP and Congress, where the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party is seeking a fourth straight term in office in the state, and on the other hand Congress is desperately seeking that elusive victory in a direct face-off with the BJP in a renewed bid to come back to power after 15 years; by adopting a pronounced soft-Hindutva approach.
It is also a major battle between senior Congress leader Arun Yadav and the incumbent Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan as they face off each other in Budhni.
The fate of two major political parties in Madhya Pradesh has been decided by 504,95,251 (5.04 crore) voters of which there were 2.63 crore male voters and 2.41 crore female voters.
The Bharatiya Janta Party had deployed its full force in the state ahead of the elections as its senior most leaders like PM Modi, party Chief Amit Shah and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adiyanath addressed 10, 25 and 15 rallies respectively. Also, Congress President Rahul Gandhi alone addressed 27 rallies in the state.
Here’s how various major parties performed in the previous Assembly elections in the state:
BJP – 165 seats (44.88 percent vote share)
Congress – 58 seats (36.38 percent)
BSP – 4 seats (6.29 percent)
Independent – 3 seats (5.38 percent)