CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan's 'raj' likely to continue in Madhya Pradesh as exit polls predict win in bypolls

Bhopal: The voting for the by-elections to 28 Assembly constituencies in Madhya Pradesh was held on November 3 and the latest exit polls have predicted that the incumbent Chief Minister and the Bharatiya Janata Party's leader Shivraj Singh Chouhan's government is likely to survive. 

The exit polls conducted by India Today-Axis My India Exit Poll predicted that BJP may get 46%, while Congress may get 43%, meaning that Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led government may win 16-18 seats, while the Madhya Pradesh Congress president and former CM Kamal Nath is expected to win 10-12 seats. 

The Bhaskar exit poll predicted 14-16 seats in BJP's favour and gave 10-13 seats to Congress. 

However, BJP seems to be at loss in the Chambal region, where the exit poll predicted 0-2 seats for BJP and 4-6 seats for Congress out of the total of 7 seats. Congress is also giving a tough fight to BJP in the Gwalior region of Jyotiraditya Scindia, where it seems to be struggling to get 5-7 seats out of the total of 9 seats.  

Although, there seems to be positive news for BJP from Malwa, where it may win the majority of the seats, according to the exit poll predictions.

In the 230-member House, the BJP currently has 107 MLAs, while the Congress has 87 legislators. 

According to the Election Commission of India, 70.27% voter turn out was recorded and the counting of votes will take place on November 10. 

Earlier, CM Chouhan, Union minister Narendra Singh Tomar, BJP Rajya Sabha member Jyotiraditya Scindia, state BJP chief VD Sharma, former state CM Uma Bharti, among others, campaigned to drum up support for their party nominees.

On the other hand, former CM Kamal Nath, Chattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, Congress veteran Digvijaya Singh and senior party leader from Rajasthan Sachin Pilot also toured the state to woo the voters for their party candidates.

This is to be noted that for the first time in the history of Madhya Pradesh, 28 Assembly seats went for the bypolls in one go. 

The by-elections were held on 25 seats as sitting Congress MLAs resigned and joined the BJP and are now in the fray as BJP candidates.

In the three other seats, the by-election was necessitated due to the demise of the sitting legislators. A few days back, one more Congress MLA had resigned. 

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