BHOPAL: Anti-incumbency against individual candidates, among them several ministers and political bigwigs, seems to have characterized the recent Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh.Thirteen ministers of the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government lost the polls, and many bigwigs of the Congress party also lost their seats, largely due to anti-incumbency against them at the constituency level.
The close contest between the two parties and the fact that neither of them reached the simple majority figure of 116 seats on their own is being seen as the result of improper ticket distribution, local anti-incumbency against candidates, and the resultant resentment leading to rebels contesting against official party candidates.
Four Congress rebels contested as independents and defeated BJP candidates, pushing the official candidates of their parent party to the third and even fourth position in at least three seats—Burhanpur, Bhagwanpura and Waraseoni—explaining how the party failed to attain a majority on its own.
Some of the official Congress candidates lost to BJP candidates due to party rebels, indicating how poor ticket distribution cost the Congress many seats. Around 22 seats in the state where votes polled for NOTA exceeded the margin of victory or defeat also indicates the unpopularity of candidates among the voters.