BJP Set to Sweep Chhattisgarh, MP as Congress Fails to Capitalise on Assembly Poll Victories

Bhopal/Raipur: Despite sweeping the Assembly polls, the Congress is in for a jolt in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, as trends suggest a saffron whitewash in both the states in what is being seen as a rerun of 2014, when the BJP had swept the polls.

Out of the 29 parliamentary seats in Madhya Pradesh, the BJP were winning in 28 seats, with Nakul Nath, son of CM Kamal Nath being the sole Congress candidate heading for a win. In Chhattisgarh as well, the BJP seems to have turned the tables with its candidates leading in 9 out of 11 seats.

In 2014, Congress managed to bag two seats in Madhya Pradesh and a single seat in Chhattisgarh.

The prominent names that are headed towards defeat include two-time Chief Minister Digvijaya Singh, former union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, former union minister Kantilla Bhuria, former Leader of opposition in MP assembly Ajay Singh, Rajya Sabha MP Vivek Tankha and former union minister Arun Yadav.

The Congress party, despite a reversal of losing streak in the assembly poll, is set for a massive defeat in Madhya Pradesh as most of the regional satraps were trailing by around noon.

BJP's Pragya Singh Thakur was leading over Congress' Digvijay Singh by 44,222 votes in Bhopal, while Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia was trailing by 18,456 votes in his traditional Guna seat against BJP's K P Yadav. Congress candidate Nakul Nath, son of Chief Minister Kamal Nath, was ahead of BJP's Nathanshah Kawreti in Chhindwara seat by a margin of 17,262 votes.

Although the Congress was making claims of winning at least 22 seats, insiders claimed that the party was expecting to enter double digits in Madhya Pradesh.

Same was the case in Chhattisgarh where the Congress had won 68 seats in the assembly polls relegating the BJP to mere 15 seats. The BJP tried countering anti-incumbency by replacing all the 10 sitting MPs and the move seems to have paid off.

Congress’s Deepak Baij from Bastar and Dhanendra Sahu from Mahasamund were the two candidates taking lead in Chhattisgarh. Santosh Pandey of BJP was leading from former CM Dr Raman Singh’s home constituency Rajnandgaon.