Bhopal : It was a mixed bag of by-election fortunes for Madhya Pradesh’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and main opposition Congress on Tuesday as the former retained Khandwa parliamentary constituency and wrested Prithvipur and Jobat (Scheduled Tribes) assembly segments but lost its hold on Raigaon (Scheduled Castes) assembly seat, which was taken by the Congress.
In Khandwa, Mr Gyaneshwar Patil defeated his nearest Congress rival Rajnarayan Singh Purni by a margin exceeding 80,000 votes. The 2019 general election had witnessed Nand Kumar Singh Chauhan winning Khandwa by a margin of more than 2.73 lakh.
Jobat, in tribal-dominated Alirajpur district bordering Gujarat, was considered a Congress citadel. However, Mrs Sulochana Rawat unfurled the saffron banner by vanquishing Mr Mahesh Patel (Cong) by more than 6,000 votes.
Prithvipur, in Bundelkhand region’s Niwari district, was won by Dr Shishupal Singh Yadav who humbled Mr Nitendra Singh Rathore (Cong) by a margin of about 15,000.
In Vindhya region’s Satna district’s Raigaon, Ms Pratima Bagri (BJP) bit the dust as Ms Kalpana Verma raced ahead by about 12,000 votes. Ms Verma is considered a supporter of the region’s senior leader and former minister Ajay Singh.
The BJP’s star campaigner Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan credited the victories to the development work accomplished by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the state government’s public welfare activities.
Congress state President and ex-chief minister Kamal Nath accepted the mandate.
“We shall review the outcome and introspect. We confronted money and muscle of the BJP, misuse of administrative machinery and criminal elements,” he wrote in social media.
The BJP controls 28 Lok Sabha seats from Madhya Pradesh while the Congress just holds Chhindwara, which is represented by Mr Nath’s son Nakul. In the 230-member Assembly, the BJP now has 128 seats and the Congress 95.
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