After 40 years, one party takes all seats in Madhya Pradesh

BJP won all 29 seats in the state in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. The last such clean sweep occurred in 1984 when the Congress won all 40 Lok Sabha seats in the undivided Madhya Pradesh

Updated on: Jun 5, 2024, 08:08:08 IST

By Shruti Tomar

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The Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) won all 29 seats from Madhya Pradesh in the Lok Sabha elections for the first time in the party’s history. The last such clean sweep occurred in 1984 when the Congress won all 40 Lok Sabha seats in the undivided Madhya Pradesh.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Madhya Pradesh chief minister Mohan Yadav in Bhopal on April 24. (PTI)

Tuesday’s results showed that the BJP received 59.27% votes while the Congress received 32.44% in the state. Former chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan won from Vidisha with a record margin of 821,408 votes. He defeated Congress candidate Pratap Bhanu Sharma again after 33 years.

Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia won by 540,929 votes from Guna. Faggan Singh Kulaste won by 103,846 votes from Mandla and Virendra Khatik by 403,312 votes from Tikamgarh. BJP state president VD Sharma won by over 500,000 votes from Khajuraho where the Samajwadi Party’s Meera Yadav faced rejection of nomination due to a mistake in the form. INDIA bloc supported All India Forward Bloc candidate RB Prajapati in Khajuraho. Prajapati came in third with over 50,000 votes while BSP candidate Kamlesh Kumar was second with nearly 231,000 votes.

The Congress suffered a setback in the state after incumbent MP Nakul Nath lost from the Chhindwara seat, which was a party bastion for years, by 113,618 votes. In 2014, the Congress had won two seats in the state while in 2019 it had won just one: the Chhindwara seat.

BJP candidate from Indore Shankar Lalwani set a record by winning the election by 1.17 million votes. Another record was created in Indore as 218,674 people opted for none of the above (NOTA), which was the highest in the country.

Since the beginning of the campaign, the BJP was focusing on Chhindwara. A day before voting, Union home minister Amit Shah took a night stay at Chhindwara to discuss last-minute strategy. “The micro-management and execution of plan with teamwork led to the win in Chhindwara,” said Kailash Vijayvargiya, cabinet minister and in-charge of Chhindwara in the Lok Sabha elections.

Among other prominent Congress leaders, former chief minister Digvijaya Singh was defeated by BJP candidate Rodmal Nagar by 145,537 votes from Rajgarh. The Congress’s former state president and tribal leader Kantilal Bhuria was defeated by Anita Nagar Singh Chouhan from Ratlam by 207,232 votes.

Chief minister Mohan Yadav said, “I am thankful to the people of Madhya Pradesh for giving immense support on all 29 seats. The new government under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi ji will create a new record of development in Madhya Pradesh.”

Congress state president Jitu Patwari said, “Residents of India denied PM Narendra Modi which resulted in BJP couldn’t cross even 300. In MP, we will analyse the result to know what went wrong.”

Political expert Girija Shankar said, “In MP, the BJP was already in a strong position but the Congress didn’t contest here like it did in Rajasthan, Maharshtra and even UP. Congress leaders showed interest only till selection of candidates. Later all the senior leaders including Digvijaya Singh and Kamal Nath confined themselves to their constituencies. Here the Congress contested election half-heartedly and was found missing on the ground.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Shruti Tomar
I have spent over a decade chronicling Madhya Pradesh’s political and social landscape, covering politics, investigative journalism, crime, human interest, and government policy, blending sharp insight with ground‑level depth. I have closely tracked three assembly elections, three Lok Sabha elections, leadership transitions in MP while exposing governance lapses, tender irregularities, and flawed policy rollouts. My reports have revealed gaps in the Cheetah project, irregularities in medical education, rigging in recruitment exams, and loopholes in policy implementation. In crime reporting, I have moved beyond FIRs to map systemic patterns — from organised crime networks and gender‑based violence to custodial accountability — balancing urgency with sensitivity. My journalism is defined by a commitment to human interest. I have profiled the marginalised Bancchda community, documented atrocities against tribal groups, and highlighted efforts to preserve their culture through heritage liquor and revival of spiritual practices. I have reported on farmers struggling with failed MSP promises, giving voice to those often reduced to statistics in policy files. Passionate about field reporting, I have reported on rampant sand mining in Chambal and Narmada, pharmaceutical companies supplying medicines under altered names, the dire condition of schools and colleges, the plight of commercial sex workers, and skewed sex ratios in specific districts. Beyond deadlines, and as HT’s state correspondent and assistant editor in Madhya Pradesh, I engage with ministers, farmers, students, and activists, believing the best policy stories begin with a single human voice. A postgraduate in Journalism and Mass Communication, I also hold a diploma in sports journalism.Read More

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