Bundelkhand: Five districts -- Chhatarpur, Damoh, Panna, Sagar, Tikamgarh -- of Bundelkhand region account for 24 out of 320 assembly seats of the state. In the 1993 assembly polls of 24 seats in the region, the Congress had bagged 15 seats and the BJP eight. In the 24 assembly constituencies of Bundelkhand region of Madhya Pradesh, a new-look Congress is all set to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party, which is aiming to repeat its impressive performance at the last two general elections. Malwa Region:

In the Malwa region, which comprises Bhopal, Ujjain and Indore divisions, the BJP continued to bag the majority of seats till 1993. In 1980, when the Jana Sangh broke away from the Janata Party and re-incarnated itself as the BJP, the party won 37 of the 87 seats in the Malwa region. In 1990, the BJP tally from the region went up to 72. At the same time, its tally in Chhattisgarh had also gone up, which could help it form the Government in the state this time around. In Chhattisgarh region that year, the BJP had captured 51 of the 90 seats. In 1993, when the Congress returned to power after a stint of President’s Rule following communal riots, the party won 54 of the region’s 90 seats from Chhattisgarh. At the same time, it made inroads into the BJP’s stronghold, Malwa, and won 36 seats in the region.

In the truncated Madhya Pradesh Assembly, there are 230 seats (earlier there were 320). Of this, the Congress has 123 and the BJP 83. The remaining seats are divided among the Samajwadi Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party, the Republican Party, the Janata Party and independents. The Congress success in the Malwa region, the traditional stronghold of the BJP, in 1998 is significant. This is a pointer towards the BJP’s decline on its home turf. In this region, the Congress has 58 seats in its bag while the BJP has only 26. However, in the Vindhya and Chambal regions where there are 86 seats, the Congress and the BJP have 30 and 40 seats respectively. Chambal and Vindhya regions:

In the Chambal and Vindhya regions, the BSP and the Samajwadi parties have been holding sway since a decade. During the last five years, these parties have further expanded their bases in these regions. During the last elections the Congress was reduced to the third position in more than a dozen seats. Against this background, the Congress will have to struggle hard in these regions. As such, the party would have to repeat its 1998 performance in the Malwa region, which has become very crucial for it to retain power in Madhya Pradesh. The BJP also needs extra effort in this region to retain its earlier position if it wants to return to power in the State. Mahakoshal region:

In the Mahakoshal region, the Congress has been in a dominating position in the last two elections. In 1993, it had captured 37 of the region’s 57 seats while in 1998 it won 35. Although it lost two seats, its performance was far better than the BJP, which could win only 16 and 17 seats, respectively, in these two elections. After 1993, the BSP and the Samajwadi Party have been making strenuous efforts to expand their areas of operation. With the background of their fabulous victories in Uttar Pradesh, these parties hope to increase their tally in north Madhya Pradesh (Vindhya and Chambal regions). Even if they fail, at least they would be successful in keeping their present strength intact.