Congress has won both seats in Madhya Pradesh that it fought for. Mungaoli and Kolaras’ wins for Congress come at a crucial time, to boost the morale of the party that lost in Gujarat.
The margins for the wins in the byelections was significantly low, but it counts as a win nonetheless. Brijendra Singh Yadav won by 2124 votes in Mungaoli and Mahendra Singh Yadav won Kolaras by 8083 votes. Both the seats belong to the Guna Lok Sabha constituency which is represented by Jyotiraditya Scindia.
Scindia said Congress won as a victory of truth and development. The battle though wasn’t easily won, in the first round of counting BJP seemed to be winning, the Congress only gained in the second round and maintained a steady margin till the seventh round in Mungaoli, in the eleventh round Brijendra Singh Yadav gained a lead of 5244 votes, and won by a margin of over 2000 votes in the end. The win has set the stage for the assembly elections that will take place in Madhya Pradesh later this year.
In Orissa, though Congress fared poorly, coming in third after BJD and BJP respectively. BJP’s threat still looms, and in the November polls it will be a head-on collision between the two parties. The victory in Madhya Pradesh was also attributed by Shivraj Chouhan to the non-participation of BSP. Rahul Gandhi has been celebrating the victory on Twitter probably much to BJP’s chagrin. The state assembly elections will be one to watch for, Congress will have to work hard.
मध्यप्रदेश की जागरूक जनता, मतदाताओं व कांग्रेस कार्यकर्ताओं को कोलारस – मुंगावली की शानदार जीत की बधाई।
यह अहंकार तथा कुशासन की हार व उम्मीद की जीत है। पहले राजस्थान और अब मध्यप्रदेश ने साबित किया कि बदलाव की आहट दस्तक दे रही है।
— Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) March 1, 2018