MP Polls: Campaign Ends, Voting Begins, All You Need To Know

1. Madhya Pradesh with a bipolar polity faces a straight battle between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress. But it is also a large and complex state with various regions, caste groups, economic and political factors.

By most accounts, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) best bet among the five states where elections are being held is Madhya Pradesh. This is due to two factors — the popularity of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and the BJP’s existing lead over the Congress in the state.

However in the past few years, the state has seen the mobilisation of various sections — the farmers’ agitation in Mandsaur and Harda, protests by upper caste outfits such as SAPAKS and Karni Sena against the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and counter protests by Dalit organisations, and the Adivasi Mahasabha in Kukshi to name a few. Such agitations have the potential of bringing about a massive political upheaval. It remains to be seen if these movements have neutralised the BJP’s dominance in Madhya Pradesh.

Chief Electoral Officer, Madhya Pradesh, VL Kantha Rao on Monday announced that 65,000 polling booths will be set up for the assembly elections, including 2000 booths that would be entirely women-operated.

“300,000 government employees including 45,000 women have been deployed on polling duty. 65,000 polling booths are being made in the state. Around 2,000 entirely women-only polling booths would be functional. 160 polling booths will be fully operated by differently-abled personnel,” he informed.

Voting in the politically crucial Madhya Pradesh (230 seats) began on Wednesday (November 28) morning. The election in the two states is being conducted in a single phase. The counting of votes will be held on 11 December. MP will vote to elect a 230-member Assembly, for which as many as 2,899 candidates, including 1,094 independents, are in the fray. BJP is contesting all the 230 seats, while the Congress has fielded 229 candidates, leaving one seat, Jatara in Tikamgarh district, for its ally — Sharad Yadav’s Loktantrik Janata Dal (LJD). Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, in office since 2005, is seeking re-election from Budhni in Sehore district. The BSP has fielded 227 candidates, while the SP is contesting on 52 seats. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), contesting the Madhya Pradesh elections for the first time, has fielded 208 candidates.

In MP, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan is fighting to retain the power for a fourth consecutive time, and the Indian National Congress (INC) will try to wrest the state that it lost in 2003 by deploying its ‘soft Hindutva’ approach. The battle for MP is being seen as a direct two-way match between the two biggest national parties of the country – BJP and the Congress.