Anup Dutta
Bhopal, May 23
The Congress led by Chief Minister Kamal Nath in Madhya Pradesh not only suffered a huge defeat in the Lok Sabha poll, but also faced embarrassment as almost all its top leaders were humbled.
The grand old party failed to draw the most out of its Assembly poll win last year as it is ahead on just one seat. Chhindwara is the only seat where the Congress is ahead of the BJP.
As per “trends” by Election Commission, the BJP is leading on 28 seats in the state, while the Congress is leading on one out of total 29 parliamentary seats.
Congress’ sitting MP from Guna Jyotiraditya Scindia, a member of the erstwhile Scindia dynasty that once ruled the Gwalior State, failed to retain home ground. Scindia lost to BJP’s KP Yadav by 1.26 lakh votes.
Yadav, a former supporter of Scindia was denied the Congress ticket ahead of the November 2018 Assembly poll. He joined the BJP and lost Assembly elections, but only to become an MP.
Pragya Singh Thakur retained the BJP’s bastion — Bhopal. She defeated former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijay Singh by over 3 lakh votes.
Pragya broke her maun vrat (silence) today that she had been observing since May 19. She was an accused in the Malegaon blast case. The Congress has not won the Bhopal Lok Sabha seat for the last 30 years
Indore was also retained by the BJP. The party fielded Shankar Lalwani, after outgoing Speaker Sumitra Mahajan backed out of the contest. In fact, the BJP also retained the remaining seven seats in the Malwa-Nimar region. In 2014 also, it had won all eight seats in the region.
Among other senior Congress leader who faced defeat in the poll was former leader of Opposition Rahul Singh, son of Congress stalwart Arjun Singh.
The Congress was unable to open its account in the Gwalior-Chambal region, Vindhya region, Shahdol, Sagar, Bhopal and Narmadapuram divisions of the state that sends 21 members to Parliament.
The Congress was able to retain the Chhindwara seat. It was won by Nakul Nath, son of CM Kamal Nath.
Nath who didn’t contest the 2018 Assembly elections held in the month of November contested from the Chhindwara Assembly seat vacated by the Nath’s close aide Deepak Saxena during the last Assembly session. He emerged victorious.
The BJP is set to better its tally in the state this election. In 2014, it had won 27 seats from the state.
Former Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan addressed media persons at his residence in Bhopal later in the day. He said the Lok Sabha poll outcome had proved that there was a tsunami of the BJP under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the country. “Lok Sabha election results reflect that there is a tsunami of the BJP, not a wave. Narendra Modi resides in the people's heart,” he said.
He said the Congress had made false promises of loan waiver. “They have stopped all programmes started by us. That is why people have voted against the Congress,” he maintained.
from The Tribune http://bit.ly/2HydAaW
via Today’s News Headlines
No comments: