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Journalism of Courage
Among the 114 seats that the Congress won in Madhya Pradesh elections, the party recorded victory in 79 seats which the BJP had won in the 2013 elections. The BJP lost power but recorded victory in 25 seats which Congress had won in 2013.
In 2013 elections, BJP had won 165 assembly seats to continue in power while Congress had won only 58 seats.
An analysis of the poll data shows that BJP managed to retain its hold on 79 seats by defeating Congress — 49 per cent of 165 seats it won in 2013. Congress retained 31 seats — 54 per cent of those won in previous elections.
Congress defeated BJP with a very narrow margin on four seats and retained three seats with similar margins. These seven seats played a crucial role in propelling Congress to power. BJP defeated Congress with small margin on three seats. Even NOTA votes were more than the victory margin on these 10 seats — seven of Congress and three held by BJP.
According to data, the closest fight was recorded in Gwalior South where Congress defeated BJP by a margin of only 121 votes. An Independent candidate got 30,745 votes and BSP 3,098 votes. While NOTA recorded 1,550 votes, the other 12 candidates also got votes above the victory margin.
In Damoh, BJP fell short of 798 votes against Congress. Several other parties and Independents clocked more votes than the victory margin.
Similarly, in Jabalpur North where the Congress defeated BJP by 578 votes, an Independent got 29,479 votes whereas BSP clocked 1,779 votes.
The BJP lost Biaora seat to Congress by 826 votes. An Independent got 13,238 votes, the BSP got 5,664 while 1,446 votes went to the AAP. Among the seats that Congress retained, the margin of votes was 932 in Rajpur, 350 in Suwasra and 732 in Rajnagar. The BJP was the runner-up in the three segments.
In Suwasra, 2,976 votes were clocked under NOTA, an Independent got 10,273 votes while 2,230 votes were in favour of Sapakas Party.
In Rajpur, only five candidates were in the fray and while 3,358 voters preferred NOTA, the BSP got the least votes at 803.
In Rajnagar, SP got 23,783 votes, Apna Dal (Soneylal) clocked 808 votes and Sapakas received 1,145 votes. NOTA recorded 2,485 votes.
Among seats retained by the BJP, the victory margin was 511 in Jaora and 632 in Bina. In Jaora, two independent candidates got above 16,000 votes, AAP received 1,241 votes while 1,510 votes were registered under NOTA. In Bina, BSP got 6,889 votes while 1,528 voters preferred NOTA.
