Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Two days after Congress lost Madhya Pradesh badly, PCC chief Kamal Nath, on Tuesday, expressed his concern over how certain MLAs informed that they have got only fifty votes in their respective villages.
"Everyone knows what the atmosphere was in the state. Some MLAs met me today in the morning and said that they got 50 votes in their own villages. How is this possible?" reacted the Congress leader Nath.
"The exit poll was to create an atmosphere. The one who knew the result in advance might have prepared the exit polls," he alleged.
Interestingly, most exit poll forecasts put the BJP ahead of the opposition, and the Congress seemed to be missing the point and not being able to take full advantage of the 'anti-incumbency' movement as they had hoped. Still, in some exit polls, the Congress party seemed to be ahead.
"We are holding discussions with the elected and non-elected candidates and analysing the result," Nath said in reference to the election mandate. Senior Congressman Digvijaya Singh had already expressed doubts about the choice, claiming that there was a possibility the EVMs had been tampered with.
On November 17, Madhya Pradesh held a single phase of elections for 230 assembly seats. The results of that state and those of three other states were released on Sunday. With only 66 seats won, the Congress party came in second, and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 163 seats to record a landslide victory in the state.
From the past
In the most recent state assembly elections in 2018, the Congress party secured the most seats with 114, while the BJP secured the second-highest number of seats with 109.
After 22 faithful MLAs and then-Congressman Jyotiraditya Scindia joined the saffron camp in 2020, a political storm shook the state and brought the Congress to power under the leadership of senior leader Kamal Nath as chief minister.
The BJP took over as the state's government when the Congress party was reduced to a minority.
Apart from the brief 15-month period during which the Kamal Nath-led administration held power when the Congress took office in 2018, Madhya Pradesh has been a BJP stronghold for the past 20 years.
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