BJP's Big Lok Sabha Win May Lead To Congress Losing MP State Govt Too

NEW DELHI—With election results indicating a sweep for the Bharatiya Janata Party  in all 29 Lok Sabha seats in Madhya Pradesh , the survival of the Congress government in the state may be in jeopardy, indicated a senior BJP functionary.

Vinay Sahasrabuddhe, the state in-charge of the BJP, told HuffPost India that a Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led administration could take over yet again in the near future.

“The Kamal Nath-led Congress government in Madhya Pradesh survives on a wafer-thin majority and given the direction in which winds are blowing, it would not be surprising if the wafer thin edge vanishes,” Sahasrabuddhe said over the phone on Thursday.   

There are 230 seats in the Madhya Pradesh assembly of which Congress won 114 seats and the BJP came a close second at 109 in the state assembly election held in December 2018. The Congress formed its government with the help of four seats from independent MLAs, Bahujan Samaj Party’s two seats and Samajwadi Party’s one.

After exit polls on Sunday predicted a sweeping victory for the ruling party, BJP MLA and Leader of Opposition in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly Gopal Bhargava said his party will ask Governor Anandiben Patel to convene a special session of the state Assembly to test the Kamal Nath government’s strength. He had left the question of introduction of a no-confidence motion open ended.

When asked if the BJP legislators will now move a motion of no-confidence in the state assembly, Sahasrabuddhe, a Rajya Sabha MP neither confirmed nor denied it, saying “things will take their own course” and that he would not like to speculate about what will happen in Madhya Pradesh .  

But, he also said, “One thing is sure, that people and their representatives are not oblivious of the very clear message that this election has given from Madhya Pradesh. So Madhya Pradesh legislators are aware in which direction the winds are blowing. Taking into consideration this realisation if certain developments happen, I would not be surprised. I will keep myself confined only to that.”

According to the BJP National Vice President, the party’s swept a majority of seats in the state because people felt a “sense of repentance for allowing Shivraj to be unseated” after 13 years as chief minister.

Even Jyotiraditya Scindia is set to lose from his family’s bastion Guna, while the BJP’s terror-accused Pragya Singh Thakur is ahead of Congress’s Digvijay Singh with a massive margin .

[Note: This article has been updated to correct a wrong title given to Jyotiraditya Scindia, which has now been removed.]