At the end of the first round of counting for the Madhya Pradesh local body elections on Monday, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party had trounced the Congress in the Scheduled Tribe areas considered to be its stronghold.
Of the 27 local bodies for which results were announced on Monday, the BJP has won in 20 on its own strength while BJP-supported candidates have won three local body elections. The Congress could register victory in only four of these local bodies. The election results are significant from BJP’s point of view as the Congress has suffered a humiliating defeat in Rajgarh, Jhabua, Nepanagar and Chhindwara — the area associated with Congress bigwigs AICC general secretary Digvijay Singh, Union minister Kamal Nath, state Congress president Kantilal Bhuria, and former Union minister Arun Yadav. On BJP’s victory, Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has thanked the tribals and party workers. He said that this is for the first time after Independence that the BJP has defeated the Congress in its tribal bastion in such a defining manner. He said that the results reflect people’s satisfaction towards the implementation of state BJP government’s policies and programmes.
State BJP chief Prabhat Jha said that the people have voted against the anti-people policies of the Congress-led UPA.