Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh voted yesterday in a high-stakes battle between the BJP and Congress. While Chhattisgarh voted for the second phase of polls, Madhya Pradesh voted in a single phase for more than 2,000 candidates contesting for 230 seats in the state assembly.
So how did the polls in the two neighboring states of central India turn out? Let’s find out
A lot is on stake in Madhya Pradesh
In Madhya Pradesh, voting for 230 Assembly seats ended at 6pm on Friday.
A total of 2,533 candidates are in the fray, including heavyweights like Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, the Congress' state unit president Kamal Nath, as well as several Union ministers and Lok Sabha MPs.
The BJP hopes to retain power in Madhya Pradesh by banking on the success of central and state schemes implemented in the state.
Who has promised what?
BJP
The BJP manifesto has promised pucca(concrete) houses to the beneficiaries of the Ladli Behna scheme, about 1.31 crore women, free education to students from poor families up to Class 12 and up to postgraduate education to girl students from BPL families.
The party has also promised several medical and engineering colleges in the state along with six highways, 2 new airports.
Congress
The Kamal Nath-led Congress has also made significant poll promises with assurances for all sections of the society, including farmers, women and government employees.
The party has promised to provide LPG cylinders at ₹500, loans up to ₹25 lakh to women for start-ups at 3 percent interest rate, housing for rural homeless women, and free transportation on metropolitan bus services and many more.
A very healthy voter turnout
The voter turnout in Madhya Pradesh was 75.36 per cent, while Chhattisgarh recorded a combined 70.59 per cent voter turnout in both the phases of polling.
A total of 1,181 candidates are in the race for the Chhattisgarh assembly elections where 90 seats are up for grab.
But all didn’t go well
Violence was reported at several places in both the states during elections on Friday. Stones were pelted on a polling station and clashes broke out between BJP and Congress supporters at different places.
One Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) jawan was also killed in an IED blast as Naxals targeted a polling party in Chhattisgarh's Bindranawagarh area.
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