BHOPAL: In sync with the party’s stunning performance nationwide, the BJP all but swept Madhya Pradesh winning 27 out of the 29 seats in the state. And in the process, the saffron party also improved on its previous best tally in the state in 2004, when it secured 25 seats.
Interestingly, the MP BJP had set its sights on winning all 29 of the LS seats, which was christened ‘Mission 29’. It was clearly Narendra Modi wave and impact of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s governance, which worked overwhelming in the BJP’s favour in the state.
The washout suffered by the state’s main Opposition Congress in the state could be gauged by the fact that former MPCC chief Kantilal Bhuria (Ratlam) and former Union Minister and incumbent MPCC chief Arun Yadav(Khandwa)lost by a huge margin.
The lone saving grace for the party, though, was that two of its prominent leaders-- Jyotiraditya Scindia and Kamal Nath-- managed to survive the Modi hurricane in their respective Gwalior and Chhindwara pocket boroughs.
Despite managing to retain the seats, Jyotiraditya and Nath recorded significantly lower victory margins compared to their showing in the 2009 polls. The Aam Aadmi Party(AAP) drew a blank in its maiden LS foray in the state.
Senior state BJP leaders attributed the party’s power performance to the Modi-Chouhan factor.
“The people wanted to bring in Modi and oust the Congress-led UPA. Hence the electorate supported us massively in last year’s Assembly elections and now it has again supported us in the general election. The fact that both Modi and Chouhan are role models of good governance worked for us in a big way,” BJP national vice-president and Rajya Sabha member Prabhat Jha said.
Leader of Opposition in the outgoing Lok Sabha, Sushma Swaraj too registered an emphatic win from Vidisha where she defeated Laxman Singh, who is brother of Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh.
“This is the win of the BJP and the party workers and the country has clearly accepted Modi’s leadership . The Gandhi dynasty is finished now,” Sushma said.
On whether she will join the Cabinet, the victorious BJP leader said it was up to Modi to take a decision in this regard since it was the PM’s prerogative.
Senior BJP Minister Kailash Vijaywargia said the people of the state had taught a lesson to the mom-son dictator duo. “When Modiji’s name was declared as PM candidate last year, I had said that the country would see a Modi wave and that is what has happened.
The dictator duo of Mother and son (Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi) destroyed thiscountry. Now the people want to see Modiji at the helm ,” he said. According to BJP legislator Vishwas Sarang,“The CM’s track record for the last nine-years is for everybody to see. Modiji too had performed exceedingly well so people knew that they were voting for someone, who was going to bring in positive change. This virtual clean sweep in the state has been possible because of Modi and Chouhan factor,” he said. Meanwhile, in Rajgarh, which is considered a Congress bastionsitting Congress MP Narayan Singh suffered a shock defeat.