Big BJP-Congress battle as Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh vote

Madhya Pradesh,Nov 17:  Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh are voting today in a high-stakes battle between the BJP and Congress. Chhattisgarh is voting for the second phase of polls, with 958 candidates in the fray for 70 assembly seats across 19 districts. In Madhya Pradesh, more than 2,000 candidates are contesting for 230 seats in the state assembly.

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and state Congress chief Kamal Nath are in the fray for today’s polls. In Chhattisgarh, meanwhile, the Patan constituency will witness a triangular battle between the ruling Congress, BJP and Janata Congress Chhattisgarh. Congress veteran and Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel will fight it out against his nephew and BJP’s Vijay Baghel. The Janata Congress Chhattisgarh has fielded the party’s supremo and former Chief Minister Ajit Jogi’s son, Amit Jogi, in the seat.

Kamal Nath, who has already cast his vote, told India Today on Friday that the people of Madhya Pradesh will make the right decision as they are “unhappy with corruption, unemployment, farmers’ problems, small traders’ problems”. “The whole picture is in front of the people of the state,” he added.

Meanwhile, Chouhan and his wife Sadhna Singh were welcomed by a massive crowd of women in Sehore as he went to offer prayers at a temple. A video shared by news agency ANI showed tilaks being applied to their heads as the Chief Minister’s wife feeds the women sweets.

Chaos erupted in Morena district in Madhya Pradesh soon after voting commenced in the state this morning. Firing was reported in the Mirgham village of Dimmi Vidhan Sabha, in which two people were shot. There was an attempt to influence voting, and two more people were injured in a stampede as well.

The BJP hopes to retain power in Madhya Pradesh by banking on the success of central and state schemes implemented in the state. Meanwhile, the grand old party is counting on anti-incumbency and corruption accusations against Shivraj Singh Chouhan to shift the gear towards them.

The BJP has fielded Chouhan from the Budhni constituency, and actor Vikram Mastal will be going against him from Congress’s side. Mastal played the role of ‘Hanuman’ in the 2008 TV serial ‘Ramayan 2’. Other bigwigs who are in the fray today are former Union Minister Narendra Singh Tomar from Dimmi, Union Minister Prahlad Singh Patel from Narsingpur, and former Chief Minister and Congress’s state chief Kamal Nath from his home turf of Chhindwara.

Nath is up against the BJP’s Vivek Bunty Sahu, who is the former Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha president for Chhindwara district. The Congress veteran won the Chhindwara by-elections in 2019 against Sahu by a huge margin of 25,837.

BJP National General Secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya, one of the party heavyweights, is contesting the Indore-1 seat. Congress has pitted former Indore Mayor Sanjay Shukla, who had won the 2018 assembly polls from the constituency, against him.

Kamal Nath’s term as Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister ended in March 2020 after a rebellion by his party colleague Jyotiraditya Scindia. It ultimately resulted in Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s BJP government coming back to power in the state.

Referring to his ‘mama’ (maternal uncle) term, the Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister told India Today this morning that everyone loves him and has Prime Minister Narendra Modi at their hearts. “Whatever responsibility the party will give me after the results, I will work in that role… Congress is creating law and order situations in every corner of the state. This cannot be tolerated,” he said.

Jyotiraditya Scindia, who is the current Civil Aviation Minister and BJP leader, had persuaded Hirendra Singh, alias Bunty Banna, into his party’s camp. Banna will be fighting it out against Congress’s Jaivardhan Singh from the Raghogarh constituency.

Jaivardhan is the son of Congress veteran and former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijaya Singh. Banna, meanwhile, is the son of Mool Singh, Digvijaya Singh’s cousin.

Chhattisgarh is voting for the second phase of polls today, with political heavyweights such as Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, his deputy TS Singh Deo, eight state ministers and four members of Parliament in the fray.

Deo is in the fray from the Ambikapur seat, and he is up against BJP’s Rajesh Agrawal. The Chhattisgarh Deputy Chief Minister has been MLA from this constituency three times since 2008. He will go to Mahamaya temple, his family’s Kuldevi place at 10 am and will cast his vote at 11 am at the Government PG college, Ambikapur.

Besides Ambikapur, Raipur City South, Korba, Sakti, Durg Rural, and Lormi, among others, are some of the key constituencies.

On Thursday, naxalites triggered two low-intensity IED blasts in Dhamtari region in Chhattisgarh, police officials said. The incident took place in the afternoon on the Khallari-Gatapur road under Sihawa assembly seat when security personnel were out on a de-mining exercise ahead of today’s polls. Though no one was hurt, PTI reported a senior police official saying that later security personnel seized a 5 kg improvised explosive device from the area.

Chaos also erupted in Madhya Pradesh’s Jhabua on Thursday night after stones were pelted on the vehicle of Congress candidate Vikrant Bhuria.

Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel urged voters on Friday to participate in polling in large numbers for the “betterment” of the state. “Today’s polling will happen for the remaining 70 seats… Your one vote will decide the future of youth, farmers, women… Please move out of your homes to vote…,” he told ANI.

After casting his vote on Friday, Chhattisgarh minister and Congress candidate from Durg Rural urged everyone to vote in large numbers. “It is the ‘mahaparv’ to elect good public representatives and everyone must participate in it… There is great enthusiasm in voters. Congress will get [an] absolute majority. We are considering more than 74 seats,” he told ANI.

BJP’s state President and candidate from Lormi constituency Arun Sao also urged people to vote, saying that the people of the state have “made up their minds for a change”. “They have decided that they will bring in a change. [The] public is going to vote for a prosperous and developed Chhattisgarh,” he was quoted as saying by ANI.

-ANI