Since the BJP has not projected CM’s face this time, the main question hovering in political circles- Who will be CM? As the saffron party is all set to form the Government. Following the early trends, Union Minister and BJP leader Jyotiraditya Scindia along with senior party leader Prabhat Jha also arrived at the residence of incumbent CM Chouhan in Bhopal. As the saffron party has won three of the past four elections since the year 2003, the State has been a BJP stronghold. If we talk about the Congress party in this bi-polar state, since Digvijaya Singh led the Congress to back-to-back wins in 1993 and 1998; those wins were the last time the Congress defended a State. In 2018, Kamal Nath led government was formed but only for 15 months. After resignation from Jyotiradiya Scindia and his supporters, Congress government was toppled and BJP again come to power. The saffron party had been ruling since 2003 and had won 2008 and 2013 elections.

 

Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has become the longest serving CM of Madhya Pradesh. Experts talking to ‘The Hitavada’ suggest “He may be looking at getting the top post yet again. BJP is riding high on schemes like Ladli Bahna and Kisan Samman Nidhi. For which credit goes to Chouhan.” On the other side, political analyst Pankaj (Bhaya) talking to ‘The Hitavada’ said that as many men from Scindia camp got the tickets, his stature in the party has grown to manifolds. With the victory of his men e.g. Tulsi Silawat and others are chances the party may reward him. Although in the middle of the battle, Scindia had told that “I am neither king nor Kingmaker” but needless to remind that in politics every thing is possible. Putting full stop to all speculations of anti-incumbency, in 2023, the BJP claimed a massive win in the Assembly election.

 

Brushing aside exit polls predicting a tight race and some even giving the Congress an edge over BJP. At 2.30 pm the BJP was leading in 165 seats- more than double the Congress’ 63. These numbers represent a staggering gain of 56 seats for the BJP and an equally staggering loss of 51 for the Congress, relative to the 2018 results. Mayawati’s BSP is leading in one of the two remaining seats. GGP is also securing some seats but small parties are not in a king maker position. So now it will be in the hands of the saffron party to choose its leader. There may be some candidates from