While exit polls predict an advantage for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over Congress in by-elections held in 28 constituencies of the legislative assembly, Tuesday’s vote count will decide the fate of the 7-month government. of the BJP and also of 12 of its ministers whose existence in Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s cabinet, if the BJP retains power, depends on winning the secondary elections.
The results of the partial polls are also very important for two former ministers: Govind Singh Rajput and Tulsi Silavat, who presented their nomination papers as ministers but had to leave the cabinet on October 20 during the electoral campaign according to the constitutional provision that prohibits a person who holds the position of minister for more than six months without being a member of the legislative assembly.
All of these ministers and former ministers were among the 22 MLAs in Congress, all loyal to BJP leader and Rajya Sabha member Jyotiraditya Scindia, who resigned from the state assembly on March 10 this year, leading to the downfall. of the then government of Congress and the BJP. regaining power after an interval of 15 months. Three more MLAs in Congress resigned from the state assembly in July.
All of these ex-MLAs joined the BJP and got tickets for the party to contest the secondary elections of their respective constituencies.
Ministers whose fate is at stake include Cabinet Ministers Mahendra Singh Sisodia, Aidal Singh Kansana, Pradyumn Singh Tomar, Imrati Devi, Prabhuram Chaudhary, Bisahu Lal Singh, Rajvardhan Singh and Hardeep Singh Dang; and the ministers of state Girraj Dandotia, PAHO Bhadoria, Suresh Dhakad and Brijendra Yadav. They were included in the state cabinet on July 2.
According to the office of the chief election official in Madhya Pradesh, the counting of votes will begin at 8 a.m. at the headquarters of 19 districts that witnessed the by-elections, necessitated by the resignations of 25 MLA from the state assembly Congress and due to the disappearance of three MLAs. Of the 28 seats, Congress had won 27 in the 2018 assembly elections.
The Chouhan government with 107 MLA in the state assembly needs to win a minimum of 8 seats in the state assembly to retain power without any outside support and reach the 115-seat majority mark in the 230-member state assembly that has one seat. vacant, while the 87 MLA Congress needs to win all 28 seats to get to the halfway point and regain power on its own.
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However, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), which has two MLAs and the Samajwadi Party (SP), with its only MLA in the state assembly, are considering the prospects of a hung assembly to play the role of kingmaker as They made these parties in 2018, when Congress fell short of the majority mark by two seats and had to seek the support of independent MLAs and outside the BJP to form the government that lasted 15 months.
There are four independents, two BSPs and one SP MLA in the Chamber. The BSP, in particular, enjoys a significant presence in the Gwalior-Chambal region, which has 16 of these 28 seats that voted in the partial polls. Although the BSP won only one seat in the Gwalior-Chambal region in the 2018 assembly elections, its presence led to a triangular contest in many of the seats. Of the 16 seats in the region, BSP had finished second in three seats and third in 11 seats in 2018.
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While the BSP ran its candidates in all 28 seats, the SP contested 14 seats during the elections, but two of the SP candidates joined rival parties: Congress and the BJP during the election campaign.
On the eve of the count, President of the State Congress Kamal Nath radiated confidence in winning the secondary elections and forming the government in the state by ousting the BJP from power.
“The results of the preliminary polls are yet to come. This election was of the people, which was fought by the people and the victory will also be of the people and the truth. Congress will sweep the ballot boxes to form its democratic government elected by the people once again and a government formed by manipulations will be overthrown, ”Nath said in a tweet.
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However, BJP State Chairman Vishnu Dutt Sharma said: “The BJP will achieve a massive victory. This is reflected in absurd statements from congressional leaders who are making unfounded accusations against the BJP. ”
BSP state chairman Ramakant Pippal, however, said: “We see an assembly hanging despite all the manipulations of the ruling BJP and the Opposition Congress against the BSP during the elections. In this scenario, the president of our party, Behan Mayawati, will make a decision about our support for any party in the formation of the new government.
Samajwadi Party state spokesman Yash Bharatiya said: “We believe that we can win two to three seats easily and if there is a hanging assembly, then our party’s national chairman Akhilesh Yadav will make a decision on the issue of support.” .
The by-elections were preceded by a bitter election campaign and personal attacks by the BJP and congressional leaders against each other, prompting the Election Commission to wrest star activist status from state Congress President Kamal Nath for his comment. ” Kya item hai ye “that he against the BJP candidate and minister of development of women and children Imrati Devi. Subsequently, the Supreme Court granted the stay of execution of the Commission’s order, but until then the campaign had ended.
The commission also prohibited Higher Education Minister Mohan Yadav and Women’s Development Minister Imrati Devi from holding and addressing any public gatherings for one day. Similarly, he warned BJP National Secretary General Kailash Vijayvargiya and Anuppur constituency BJP candidate Bisahulal Singh while issuing notices to BJP candidate Girraj Dandotia, BJP MLA Usha Thakur and Congressional leaders Sajjan Singh Verma and Acharya Pramod Krishnan for complaints that they used objections. comments during your election meetings.
It was during the campaign that the highest court of the MP, Gwalior bank, in its interim order of October 20 expressed its displeasure at the conduct of politicians in the context of the Covid situation in the state and prohibited the subject physical public gatherings to the availability of the virtual campaign in nine districts under its jurisdiction, which included eight districts in the Gwalior-Chambal region. Subsequently, the Supreme Court granted the stay of execution of the order. Through its earlier provisional order, the higher court ordered the filing of FIRs against the union minister, Narendra Singh Tomar, and the president of the state Congress, Kamal Nath, for violations of the Covid-19 protocol.
70.27% of the votes were registered in the 28 electoral districts of the assembly. The vote was marred by violence at certain points in Chambal’s division in particular, resulting in gunshot wounds to at least three people. In the 2018 assembly elections, these 28 seats registered 73.39% of the vote.
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