Madhya Pradesh assembly election results 2018: ‘Couldn’t get desired result, I’m responsible for defeat’, says Shivraj Singh Chouhan

Outgoing Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan accepted responsibility for the Bharatiya Janta Party’s inability to secure a majority in the state assembly, at a press conference in Bhopal on Wednesday.

“We could not get a majority or our desired success. And for that, I am the only one responsible. Despite all our effort, all the good work of the Centre, we could not achieve our desired result,” Chouhan, who submitted his resignation in the afternoon, said.

“I decided that we don’t have the numbers so we shouldn’t try to make the government. I called Kamal Nath to congratulate him and wished him all the best,” said Chouhan, who was the chief minister for 13 years.

State Congress chief Kamal Nath is one of the two top contenders for the chief minister’s post, the other being the party’s state poll campaign committee chairman Jyotiraditya Scindia.

(BJP) state chief Rakesh Singh, who addressed the conference with Chouhan, added that the “the defeat is collective (responsibility),” Singh said.

The state elections results were declared late Tuesday night, with the Congress securing 114 seats and the BJP 109 seats in the 230-member assembly. The Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party won 1 and 2 seats, respectively, while four independent candidates won.

The BSP, SP and independents have pledged alliance to the Congress, which has staked claim to form the new government in the state, after a 15-year rule of BJP.

“I decided that we don’t have the numbers to form the government, so we shouldn’t try to make the government,” he said.

Chouhan referred to some of the welfare schemes that he had introduced, and said that these schemes came out of his own experience of hardship that he faced as a child. “These were not made to gain votes, but to ensure the right of the poor to access natural resources,” he said.

“I would request the new government to keep up the promises that they have made in their manifesto, like farm loan waiver. (Rahul Gandhi) had said that he will change the CM if the waiver doesn’t happen in 10 days,” Chouhan added at the conference.