DATIA: Even as the Friday evening’s exit polls showed a close contest between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress in Madhya Pradesh, the ruling party’s leaders on Saturday were confident of a win in the Assembly polls held on November 28.
The optimism is spearheded by none other than Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan. After returning with family from the leisure trip at Bandhavgarh National Park, the CM told journalists in Datia after offering prayers at the Pitambara temple that “we’re confident about yet another term in power with a comfortable majority.”
When queried about the exit poll results, the CM said “I’m the biggest surveyor, as I’ve travelled all across the state and have always been in the mid of public. We’ll form government again with a comfortable majority,” a confident Chouhan told journalists.
A few hours later, former CM and eight-time sitting MLA from Bhopal’s Govindpura seat Babulal Gaur also expressed confidence that the BJP will form the government again with at least 120 seats.
This was a marked departure from the octogenarian leader’s recent statements in a video telling the sitting Congress MLA from Bhopal North seat, Arif Aqeel, about the Congress coming to power and Aqeel all set to become a Cabinet minister. “Had the pre-poll internal surveys of the party been the sole parameter for choosing winnable candidates, old warhorses Sartaj Singh, Raghavji (his daughter) and Ramkrishna Kusmaria would have definitely been given tickets and the party’s win would have been easier and bigger,” said Gaur hinting towards discrimination in choosing of candidates for the November 28 poll.
Two days back, former MP minister and presently party’s national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya had tweeted that the party will again be in power with 130 seats. Vijayvargiya whose son Akash is making electoral debut from Indore-III seat of Indore district had also tweeted that “there is no doubt that Akash will win, but if his victory margin is below 15,000 votes then I will be forced to think that I haven’t done enough public service for my city Indore.”