Kamal Nath, barring once, has been winning election from this constituency since 1980. From that year onwards Kamal Nath has been nursing his constituency in a highly systematic and excellent manner. In fact, he has converted Chhindwara into his personal fiefdom. Thus, Kamal Nath’s victory is, by and large, his personal victory. It can’t be described as a Congress victory. Similar is the story of Guna. Guna was a part of princely state of ruled by the Scindias. There are about five to six constituencies in the state from where a Scindia family member’s victory is almost taken for granted. They are assured of victory in these constituencies irrespective of the party on whose symbol they contest. Thus Jyotiraditya’s victory can’t be designated as Congress victory either. Therefore it can be safely stated that the Congress has not been able to win a single seat in the State.

In the last Lok Sabha elections, the Congress had won 12 seats. It was expected that the Congress tally may be five or six this time. Even some BJP leaders were expecting that Congress may retain at least six seats. Babulal Gaur, former Chief Minister and at present Home Minister of the State went on record to say that the Congress would win five to six seats. He faced severe criticism from many BJP leaders for his optimism about the Congress performance. In fact, some party leaders demanded disciplinary action against Gaur.

From the day one, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan was claiming that all the 29 Lok Sabha constituencies in the State will be in the BJP’s pocket. His claim was described as Mission 29. The Lok Sabha victory of the BJP has been rated more spectacular than the one in the Vidhan Sabha elections held in the month of November last year.

A local newspaper analysed the performance of the Congress with the headline “55 Congress MLA but party victorious in only 35 assembly segments”. Assembly segment-wise tally of Lok Sabha results shows that the Congress candidates could manage victory in only 35 Assembly constituencies. The Congress had bagged 58 seats in the last Assembly elections but three Congress MLAs left the party to join the BJP. Thus the Congress strength came down to 55. Out of them 20 Assembly segments gave more votes to the BJP candidates.

The Assembly segments which did not give majority to the Congress include those constituencies which elected opposition leader Satyadev Katare, former opposition leader Ajay Singh and Jayvardhan Singh, son of Digvijay Singh in the November 2012 elections. Among the prominent Congress leaders who lost the elections are Arun Yadav, president of Madhya Pradesh Committee, Kantilal Bhuria, former PCC chief, Ajay Singh former opposition leader.

One of the highlights of the Lok Sabha election is the victory of Dr. Bhagirath Prasad and Uday Pratap Singh, who defected to the BJP after severing ties with the Congress. Dr. Prasad, a former IAS officer, deserted the Congress after the commencement of the election process.

There is no doubt that the Lok Sabha verdict has given a big boost to the prestige of the Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan; though, overall, the credit for the poll verdict has to be shared by Chauhan and Narendra Modi. While Chauhan could manage victory in 27 out of 29 Lok Sabha constituencies but to everybody’s surprise, the BJP candidate Sushma Swaraj got fewer votes in Chauhan’s Vidhan Sabha segment than Chauhan had got in the Vidhan Sabha polls.

Among the prominent BJP leaders who won Lok Sabha polls in Madhya Pradesh include Sushma Swaraj, who contested from Vidisha Lok Sabha constituency. During the elections, Sushma appealed to Vidisha voters to ensure her victory with a bigger margin than in 2009 and the Vidisha voters gave a positive response. Another prominent victory was that of Sumitra Mahajan who was elected with the margin of more than five lakhs. This was her eighth consecutive victory. She has been winning from Indore, the biggest and the richest city of Madhya Pradesh.

There is no doubt that the Congress has been going downhill from 2003, when it lost the Vidhan Sabha elections. It is to be seen how it tries to put its house in order. There is no doubt that the party organisation is in a bad shape. After the debacle in Assembly polls, Kantilal Bhuria, then state Congress president resigned owning responsibility for the Congress rout but the current president Arun Yadav has declined to quit. Yadav and opposition leader Satyadev Katare asserted that people’s anger against the UPA was primarily responsible for the Congress rout.

Yadav, talking to reporters said that there was no Modi wave in the state and the Congress was done in by intense anti-incumbency sentiment against the UPA Government. Similarly, Katare blamed anger against the United Progressive Alliance government responsible for party’s debacle in the Lok Sabha polls. He said that the Congress defeat in the Assembly election was also primarily due to people’s anger against the central Government. Thus the state leaders refuse to count local factors for the debacle both in Lok Sabha and Assembly elections. (IPA Service)