BJP leading in 155 of 230 seats in Madhya Pradesh, Congress ahead in 72

The ruling BJP looks on course to retain power in Madhya Pradesh, going by the trends so far from the counting of votes for the state assembly elections. As per the latest figures available with the Election Commission, the BJP was leading in 155 of the 230 seats in Madhya Pradesh, while the Congress was ahead in 72 seats.

In Budhni assembly constituency, Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan of BJP was leading over Vikram Sharma of Congress by 13339 votes after two rounds of counting of votes. In Chhindwara, Kamal Nath of Congress was leading over BJP's Vivek Sahu by 5978 votes after two rounds of counting. In Indore-1 seat, BJP's Kailash Vijayvargiya was leading over Sanjay Shukla of Congress by 42681 votes after first round of counting. In Dimani, BJP's Union minister Narendra Singh Tomar was leading over BSP's Balveer Dandotiya by 2021 votes after two rounds of counting of votes.

The counting process began at 8 am and postal ballots were counted for the first half an hour, a poll official said. Polling in the single-phase elections on November 17 saw an impressive turnout of 77.82 per cent, surpassing the 2018 voting percentage of 75.63 per cent. The state electorate voted for 2,533 candidates in 230 constituencies.

There were 5.59 lakh eligible voters. At 26, Jhabua seat will see the highest number of counting rounds, while the lowest number of 12 rounds will be held in Sevda constituency in Datia district, he said. Of the 230 seats, 47 are reserved for Scheduled Tribes and 35 for Scheduled Castes.