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ELECTIONS '96

BJP's record win in Madhya Pradesh

In its triumphant march, the Bharatiya Janata Party notched up as many as 30 seats, conceding only 10 to the ruling Congress. The latter party suffered the further humiliation of seeing some of its top stalwarts, Congress Working Committee member Arjun Singh and former Union minister Vidya Charan Shukla, humbled in the Lok Sabha election in Madhya Pradesh.

This is the BJP's highest-ever tally in the state. In 1996, it had won 27 seats that later swelled to 28 after the party wrested the Chhindwara seat in a 1997 by-election.

The Congress had claimed eight seats in the last election but this number rose to 11 after Madhavrao Scindia of the Madhya Pradesh Vikas Congress, Tilak Raj Singh (Congress-Tiwari) and an Independent rejoined the Congress fold which they had left before the 1996 election. However, the tally came down down to 10 after the party lost the Chhindwara by-election.

The biggest upset of the Congress was Arjun Singh's defeat in Hoshangabad by nearly 69,000 votes and Vidya Charan Shukla in Raipur by over 83,000 votes. The BJP bigwigs who tasted defeat were former chief ministers Sunderlal Patwa and Kailash Joshi and state BJP president Nandkumar Sai.

The Bahujan Samaj Party, which had won two seats and trounced Congress heavyweight Arjun Singh in the 1996 election, was routed this time.

BSP general secretary and former Union minister Arvind Netam, who contested from two constituencies, did not even emerge as the runner-up in both Janjgir and Kanker (ST) constituencies. Similarly, state BSP president Dauram Ratnakar was relegated to the third position in Sarangarh (SC) constituency.

The BJP wrested six seats from the Congress and two from the BSP and retained 22 other seats while the Congress retained its four and wrested six from the BJP.

The BJP won Hoshangabad, Jabalpur, Guna, Vidisha, Mahasamund, Raipur, Bhind, Balaghat, Durg, Shajapur (SC), Morena (SC), Khargone, Khandwa, Damoh, Sidhi (ST), Sagar (SC), Bastar (ST), Mandsaur, Bilaspur (SC), Mandla (ST), Shahdol (ST), Ujjain (SC), Betul, Indore, Kanker (ST), Satna, Rewa, Khajuraho, Bhopal, and Jabalpur.

Besides winning the prestigious Chhindwara seat, the Congress nominees were elected from Gwalior, Rajnandgaon, Rajgarh, Seoni, Janjgir, Raigarh (ST), Dhar (ST), Jhabua (ST), and Sarangarh (SC) seats.

However, the state election office is yet to make a formal announcement of the results of Khajuraho, Satna, Rewa, Sidhi (ST) and Damoh constituencies.