Express News Service
BHOPAL: More than 5.60 crore voters — 2.88 crore males and 2.72 crore females — will vote for the 230 assembly constituencies of Madhya Pradesh to elect the next government on Friday. The main contest is likely to be between the ruling BJP and the opposition Congress, while smaller parties, like the BSP-GGP combine, SP, AAP and the Vindhya Janata Party, may upset the two main contenders’ calculations in about 20-25 seats.
Over three-and-a-half years after the 15-month-old Congress government headed by Kamal Nath was toppled, the grand old party is eyeing to return to power, largely on the back of 19 years of anti-incumbency of the Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led BJP government.
Led by Kamal Nath as its CM face, Congress is also banking on a series of poll guarantees, particularly the promises of resuming farm loan waiver, conducting caste census, old pension scheme for government employees, and women-oriented promises contained in its Nari Samman Yojana, besides repeatedly raising the issue of corruption in the state.
The ruling BJP, on the other hand, with no CM face, has been led into the long-drawn poll campaign largely headed by PM Narendra Modi under the guiding slogan ‘Modi Ke Mann Mein Basey MP, MP Ke Mann Mein Modi’. The BJP is particularly banking on the pro-poor schemes of Central and state, Ladli Behna Scheme and other pro-women and youth-centric announcements made in the manifesto released on November 11.
While opinion polls in the recent past have been predicting a close race between both the main players (with an edge to the Congress), inputs from ground zero suggest that the Gwalior-Chambal, Vindhya and Bundelkhand regions may ultimately hold the key to who comes to power, despite the communally sensitive Malwa-Nimar region housing maximum 66 seats.
Before the campaigning came to a close on Wednesday, all top leaders of both the parties, including PM Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, MP CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan, UP CM Yogi Adityanath, CMs and deputy CMs of other BJP-ruled states and a host of Union ministers (for BJP), and Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Mallikarjun Kharge and Kamal Nath (for Congress) addressed rallies and held road shows across the state.
While the ruling BJP organised over 630 rallies, the Congress was far behind with 350-plus rallies. Among the star campaigners for the ruling party, PM Modi addressed 15 rallies and held one roadshow, Shah addressed 21 rallies and held two roadshows.On the other hand, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra addressed 10 rallies and held one roadshow, her brother Rahul Gandhi addressed nine rallies and held two roadshows, while party’s present president Mallikarjun Kharge addressed seven rallies. Follow channel on WhatsApp
BHOPAL: More than 5.60 crore voters — 2.88 crore males and 2.72 crore females — will vote for the 230 assembly constituencies of Madhya Pradesh to elect the next government on Friday. The main contest is likely to be between the ruling BJP and the opposition Congress, while smaller parties, like the BSP-GGP combine, SP, AAP and the Vindhya Janata Party, may upset the two main contenders’ calculations in about 20-25 seats.
Over three-and-a-half years after the 15-month-old Congress government headed by Kamal Nath was toppled, the grand old party is eyeing to return to power, largely on the back of 19 years of anti-incumbency of the Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led BJP government.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); });
Led by Kamal Nath as its CM face, Congress is also banking on a series of poll guarantees, particularly the promises of resuming farm loan waiver, conducting caste census, old pension scheme for government employees, and women-oriented promises contained in its Nari Samman Yojana, besides repeatedly raising the issue of corruption in the state.
The ruling BJP, on the other hand, with no CM face, has been led into the long-drawn poll campaign largely headed by PM Narendra Modi under the guiding slogan ‘Modi Ke Mann Mein Basey MP, MP Ke Mann Mein Modi’. The BJP is particularly banking on the pro-poor schemes of Central and state, Ladli Behna Scheme and other pro-women and youth-centric announcements made in the manifesto released on November 11.
While opinion polls in the recent past have been predicting a close race between both the main players (with an edge to the Congress), inputs from ground zero suggest that the Gwalior-Chambal, Vindhya and Bundelkhand regions may ultimately hold the key to who comes to power, despite the communally sensitive Malwa-Nimar region housing maximum 66 seats.
Before the campaigning came to a close on Wednesday, all top leaders of both the parties, including PM Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, MP CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan, UP CM Yogi Adityanath, CMs and deputy CMs of other BJP-ruled states and a host of Union ministers (for BJP), and Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Mallikarjun Kharge and Kamal Nath (for Congress) addressed rallies and held road shows across the state.
While the ruling BJP organised over 630 rallies, the Congress was far behind with 350-plus rallies. Among the star campaigners for the ruling party, PM Modi addressed 15 rallies and held one roadshow, Shah addressed 21 rallies and held two roadshows.On the other hand, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra addressed 10 rallies and held one roadshow, her brother Rahul Gandhi addressed nine rallies and held two roadshows, while party’s present president Mallikarjun Kharge addressed seven rallies. Follow channel on WhatsApp
