Madhya Pradesh results 2018: Bastions of many senior BJP leaders crumble

BHOPAL: Though the BJP has lost the assembly polls by a wafer thin margin, Shivraj Singh Chouhan has emerged as the tallest leader of Bharatiya Janata Party in the state.


Apart from him, most of the other party leaders, including Narendra Singh Tomar, Rakesh Singh, Kailash Vijayavargiya, Thawar Chand Gehlot and Nandkumar Singh Chouhan have failed to ensure victory of BJP candidates in their respective constituencies and cities, including Jabalpur, Gwalior, Indore and Ujjain.

The party has lost half of the assembly seats in the Lok Sabha constituencies and bastions of these leaders. In the Gwalior Lok Sabha constituency that is represented by Narendra Singh Tomar, BJP has fared miserably. It has lost many seats, including Gwalior, Gwalior East, Gwalior South and Pohari, all of which were won by the party in 2013 assembly elections.

In the Lok Sabha constituency of state BJP president Rakesh Singh, the party has lost four assembly segments — Bargi, Jabalpur East, Jabalpur North and Jabalpur West. These seats too were won by BJP in 2013 assembly polls. Singh offered to resign after the debacle, but party has declined his offer, sources said.

Similarly, former state president Nand Kumar Singh Chouhan has failed to save the party in his Khandwa LS constituency. The party has lost Mandhata, Nepanagar, Burhanpur and Badwah seats that were won by it in 2013 assembly polls.

Another strong leader of BJP in MP is party’s general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya. His bastion is Indore and Malwa region. BJP has lost Depalpur, Indore 1, Rau and Sanwer assembly seats in Indore LS seat. Lok Sabha speaker Sumitra Mahajan is an MP from Indore, but Vijayvargiya has sway in the city. In Malwa region, the party has lost 38 out of the total 66 seats this time.

Similarly, Thawar Chand Gehlot from the Nagda-Khacharod area of Ujjain has not been able to manage victories for BJP candidates in his area. There are also places where BJP could not win a single seat, including Morena and Chhindwara districts.

Political analyst Girija Shankar said that these BJP leaders started their political career in the 1990s, but due to his simplicity and people connect Shivraj Singh Chouhan went on to become a mass leader creating his own vote bank.

Out of the total 109 seats won by the BJP, people have voted for Shivraj on three-fourth seats and not for BJP, he added.