New Delhi: Madhya Pradesh Congress chief Kamal Nath was leading by over 15,000 votes in his Chindwara seat Sunday afternoon, though incumbent BJP is set to storm back to power in the state.
Chhindwara is Nath’s bastion, and the BJP had hoped to lure voters with a young face. However, the party’s candidate, 44-year-old Vivek Bunty Sahu, was trailing after nine rounds of counting.
According to early trends, the BJP was leading in 150 seats in the 230-member Madhya Pradesh assembly, while the Congress was leading in 69.
In the 2018 assembly election, the Congress had emerged as the single-largest party with 114 seats and managed to form government under Nath.
In 2020, then MP deputy chief minister Jyotiraditya Scindia walked out of the government and joined the BJP, marking the end of Kamal Nath’s short tenure as CM.
The BJP, on the other hand, has ruled the state for two decades – except the 15 months in between, from 2018 to 2020 – and the 2023 victory will make it the party’s fourth stint in power. Incumbent Shivraj Singh Chouhan has been chief minister for all three previous terms.
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