The Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, Shivraj Singh Chouhan was confident about winning a third consecutive term in the assembly elections, that is until the Congress introduced Jyotiraditya Scindia to take on the incumbent CM. The ratings of Shivraj Singh Chouhan would have taken a hit had the Congress introduced Scindia a year and a half back, according to the C-Voter Pre-poll Survey for Times Now.
The young Congress leader has managed to swing the party back in the Chambal region and begin an upswing in Madhya Pradesh, although Chouhan is expected to retain his chair for the third time consecutively as per the survey.
The C-Voter survey shows that the tally of BJP’s 143 seats in 2008 is likely to slip to 126 seats in the assembly polls. The Congress will get 88 seats from the 71 seats it had in 2008, way less than the number of seats the BJP has but quite significant for the party itself.
Even though the BJP will have a substantial lead in terms of the number of seats, the Congress will have had its best performance in the state since 1998. Significant progress has been made by the Congress in the Bagelkhand region, a stronghold of BJP leader Uma Bharti. Uma Bharti, to the surprise of many, has not campaigned in the region so far. The Congress is expected to tally at 23 seats from its previously 12 seats in the Bagelkhand.
According to the survey carried out by Lokniti and CSDS for CNN–IBN and The Week, the BJP is likely to register a 6% rise in vote share as compared to 2008.
On being asked if he’s worried about Scindia, Chouhan said he had no comments to say against anyone and that people of the state would judge his party based on the work that they’ve done, ending with him stating that he’s not an arrogant person.