Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrives at BJP headquarters in New Delhi to attend celebrations after the party won elections to Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh Assemblies on December 3, 2023. (PTI)
Madhya Pradesh Assembly election results 2023: The BJP has won 49 of these 79 seats, compared to only three seats out of these it had won in 2018. It was also on these 79 seats that the BJP put up its seven senior leaders, including Union Ministers, MPs and a national general secretary
The BJP’s move to declare candidates on 79 seats very early in the campaign, almost 50 days before the votes were cast, proved to be the proverbial ‘masterstroke’ explaining its big win in Madhya Pradesh.
The BJP has won 49 of these 79 seats, compared to only three seats out of these it had won in 2018 and had ended up short of the majority mark. It was also on these 79 seats that the BJP put up its seven senior leaders, including Union Ministers, MPs and a national general secretary. Five of them have won their seats, bolstering the BJP tally.
“The BJP took a big strategic decision by declaring 79 candidates even before the Model Code of Conduct was announced. These were extremely difficult seats for us in Madhya Pradesh as we had won just three of them in the 2018 elections. The party decided to begin preparations early on these 79 seats to win MP,” a top BJP leader told News18.
The decision has propelled the party from the 109 seats it won in 2018 to nearly 163 seats it has won on Sunday. The BJP even changed the candidates who had won the three seats for it in 2018. “A clean start was made. Jalam Singh had won from Narsinghpur but his brother and Union minister Prahlad Patel was put up from this seat now,” the leader said.
As a result, some big leaders of the Congress have lost from their fiefdoms in these 79 seats. Working president of the Congress state unit Jitu Patwari lost from his sitting seat of Rau near Indore, while former finance minister in the Kamal Nath government and Nath’s close aide, Tarun Bhanot, lost from Jabalpur (West) seat to BJP MP Rakesh Singh.
BJP national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya defeated Congress sitting MLA from Indore-1, Sanjay Shukla. Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar has won from Dimani, a seat that the BJP lost in 2018, while MP Udaypratap Singh has wrested Gadawara for BJP from the Congress. Minister Prahlad Patel has retained Narsinghpur for the BJP, while BJP MP Riti Pathak retained Sidhi.
Some of the 79 seats have, in fact, been won by very comfortable margins by the BJP, highlighting how early preparations on these seats had helped. BJP MPs being put to the fight also seems to have helped as they seem to have worked their influence on the other seats falling in their parliamentary constituencies to increase the BJP’s tally.
BJP leaders said the decision to put up 79 candidates early had the blessings of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP president JP Nadda, state in-charge Bhupender Yadav and state co-incharge Ashwini Vaishnaw. The success of this decision may now be replicated by the BJP in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections as well with the BJP planning to declare some candidates as early as February.
