MP polls: Congress set to dislodge BJP with 114 seats

After a neck-and-neck fight between the Congress and BJP, the former is all set to dislodge the 15 years of BJP rule after winning 114 seats -- two short of majority mark -- in the 230-member assembly, leaving the present dispensation with 109 seats.

The Congress is learnt to have approached like minded parties like the BSP and SP to back it in the state to form government. It is learnt that the BSP has assured Congress of its support to help the party form the government in a bid to keep BJP out of power.

The Congress party sought an appointment with Madhya Pradesh Governor Anandiben Patel on late Tuesday night to stake claim to form government in the state. Madhya Pradesh Congress chief Kamal Nath, in a letter to Patel, said that Congress emerged as the single largest party and also has the support of independent candidates.

Throughout Tuesday, the trends placed both the parties at the gaining and receiving ends.

In the 230-member strong Legislative Assembly of Madhya Pradesh, the BJP trailed marginally at 109, while the Mulayam Singh Yadav's Samajwadi Party (SP) has won 1 seat and Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has bagged 2 seats. On the other hand, Independents have won 4 seats all over the state.

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan won from his traditional Budhni seat. Chouhan, who contested against Congress' Arun Subhashchandra, gathered a total of 1,23,492 votes. However, as many as 12 ministers from the current Madhya Pradesh Council of Ministers lost from their respective constituencies, including Antarsingh Arya (Sendhwa), Deepak Joshi (Hatpipliya), Jai Bhan Singh Pawaiya (Gwalior), Rustam Singh (Morena), Jayant Malaiya (Damoh), and Sharad Jain (Jabalpur North).

Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said the drubbing faced by the BJP in assembly elections was a message to Prime Minister Narendra Modi that he had failed to fulfil his promises and asserted that a united opposition will defeat BJP in the next year's Lok Sabha polls as well. He said that "it is time for a change" and that the Congress will provide a new vision to the country to address the problems like unemployment, agricultural crisis."

Earlier, Prime Minister Modi said, "We accept the people's mandate with humility. I thank the people of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan for giving us the opportunity to serve these states. The BJP Governments in these states worked tirelessly for the welfare of the people."

Besides, Madhya Pradesh, the BJP has lost power in Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh which is perceived as a major blow to the saffron party ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.

Madhya Pradesh went for voting on November 28 while the counting of votes started on December 11. In 2013 Assembly polls, the BJP had won 166 seats, while the Congress and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) had bagged 58 and four seats respectively.