New Delhi: The Congress managers are upbeat over the higher polling percentage at 76 percent as compared to 75 percent in 2018 in Madhya Pradesh and are interpreting it as an anti-BJP vote.
Polling for the 230-member MP Assembly took place on Nov 17. The result would be out on Dec 3. “Though final figures from the Election Commission are yet to come, our estimate is that polling in the state was over 76 percent. This is higher than 75 percent polling in the 2018 polls. A higher voting percentage shows there is a tsunami in favour of the Congress,” AICC secretary in charge of Madhya Pradesh Shiv Bhatia told this channel.
“It is a vote against the BJP. The people were angry with the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government over issues like unemployment, price rise and corruption. We promised action on these issues and the voters have responded,” he said. According to AICC secretary in charge of Madhya Pradesh CP Mittal, two issues went into the favour of the Congress.
“Even after the BJP toppled his government in 2020 through corrupt means, former chief minister Kamal Nath kept the state team united and at a level where the Congress was seen as an equal of the BJP. This allowed the party to be in the fight over the past three years. The fact that both former chief ministers Kamal Nath and Digvijay Singh worked as a team and did not fight each other after Jyotiraditya Scinda ditched the party was also liked by the voters,” Mittal told this channel.
Both Bhatia and Mittal said that there were more women voters who registered this time and claimed that the Rs 1,500 per month women’s allowance guaranteed by the Congress attracted the female voters. “Since the number of registered women voters was more, their polling is also more this time, which is a good sign,” said Mittal.
Both the AICC functionaries claimed that the Congress was on its way to form the next government but refrained from commenting on how many seats the party may win. “I would not like to go into the numbers. We will get more seats than we had won in 2018 and we will form a government,” said Mittal. The Congress had won 114 seats in 2018.
Before the polling day Nov 17, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who had led the party’s campaign in Madhya Pradesh, had appealed to the voters to go out and cast their ballot. The three leaders had urged the voters to consider the future of the state and their wards before casting their vote while pointing out the failures of the BJP government.
According to Congress Working Committee member Abhishek Manu Singhvi, the higher voter turnout in Madhya Pradesh showed “that the Congress was coming back to power and distribution of freebies just ahead of the elections would not fetch anything to Mamaji (as CM Chouhan is popularly known) who tried to make state’s janata ‘Mamu’ (befool).”
Kamal Nath, who received wishes from partymen on Saturday, too thanked the voters for coming out in large numbers and said it would pave the way for a new pro-people government in Madhya Pradesh.
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