MP Assembly Election: Congress Confident Of Victory, BJP Pins Hopes On Ladli Behna Yojana

New Delhi: The Congress and the BJP are locked in a close contest for the Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections, whose results will be declared on Sunday. The Congress campaigned on the issue of the “scams” that surfaced during the BJP’s rule for almost two decades. The Congress leaders are hopeful that the people have voted for a change and will give the grand-old party a clear majority for a stable government.

The Congress workers, led by two senior leaders - state unit chief Kamal Nath and former Chief Minister Digvijaya Singh, are confident of their victory. They are also encouraged by the fact that many of the BJP’s heavyweights, including the Union Ministers, have faced tough competition from the Congress in their respective assembly seats.

Several BJP leaders, who have won three or four times in a row in the past, have also struggled this time. The Congress leaders and workers have claimed that the party will win between 130-140 seats. They are also optimistic because the party is expecting to perform better this time in the regions where it was reduced to single digits in 2018 - such as Vindhya and Bhopal regions.

The exit polls for Madhya Pradesh, which were released on November 30, have surprised not only the people associated with the Congress and the BJP, but also the common people. The Congress leadership, however, has said that the ‘exit poll’ is a ploy by the BJP to put pressure on the election officials during the counting of votes.

In a video message after the exit polls were released, Madhya Pradesh Congress president Kamal Nath declared that the “BJP has lost the election.”

He urged the party workers to stay focused on their work (counting) and said, “Some exit polls were made to put pressure on the officials by creating a false impression that the BJP was coming back to power. It also aims to demoralise the Congress workers before counting. But this conspiracy will not succeed.”

On the other hand, the BJP also believes that the people have voted for the development work done by the double-engine government. The BJP’s expectation is higher because of the ‘Ladli Behna Yojana’ - a cash scheme for women launched by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.

BJP president J. P. Nadda’s visit to Gwalior and offering prayers at the temple in Datia on Friday has created a buzz in the political circles.

He was accompanied by Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, Chief Minister Chouhan, Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Narottam Mishra during his visit to Gwalior. There is a buzz that Nadda’s sudden visit before the counting in Madhya Pradesh may be for a consensus on the Chief Minister’s post, if the BJP wins the election on December 3.