Congress, BJP claim victory in Madhya Pradesh

Bhopal: The ruling BJP and Opposition Congress on Wednesday claimed victory in the Wednesday’s assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh.

MP Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) president Kamal Nath said the high polling witnessed in the election has clearly indicated that there was a strong undercurrent against the ruling BJP.

“I was hopeful that Congress would secure at least 140 out of total 230 seats in the polls. But, I could now sense due to high polling  that the election might have become one-sided polling which may also throw an astonishing result in favour of Congress”, he told reporters here.

Replying to a question as to who would be the chief minister if Congress returned to power in MP, he said AICC president Rahul Gandhi would take a call on it.

He alleged that there were incidents of rigging of polls in some booths, besides malfunctioning of voting machines in quite a good number of polling centres.

“Congress has lodged around 150 complaints in this regard to election commission”, he added

BJP which has issued an advertisement in local media on Wednesday appealing voters to record 90 percent polling in the election also claimed that the high polling would help the party retain power in the state.

“Our poll strategy was to increase polling percentage by mobilizing voters for the purpose. We have succeeded in our efforts to increase polling percentage. We are confident of retaining power”, BJP spokesman here Rajnish Agrawal said.

Mr Agrawal said he would not be surprised if the party achieved its target of securing 200 plus seats considering the record voter turnout witnessed in Wednesday’s elections.

The state witnessed a record voter turnout of 74.61 percent this time as compared to 72.69 per cent in 2013 Assembly elections.