Both the BJP and the Congress in Madhya Pradesh claim that the highest voters’ turnout in Bhopal parliamentary constituency and its Assembly segments would benefit them.
The Bhopal parliamentary seat has recorded highest ever turnout in 40 years, 65.65%. The turnout is higher by 8% than that in 2014, when the Modi wave had gripped the elections.
In 2014, Bhopal had recorded 57.79% voting, while it was 44.69% in 2009 general elections. The last time polling crossed 60% was in 1999 when Uma Bharti was BJP’s Bhopal candidate.
The fight between Congress’s senior leader Digvijay Singh and BJP’s Pragya Thakur made the Bhopal constituency an important seat and attracted media of the whole country.
However, factually, neither Prime Minister Narendra Modi nor Congress president Rahul Gandhi campaigned in Bhopal.
Singh campaigned for development, and released a booklet on his vision for Bhopal, while Thakur released her own manifesto for the city towards the fag end of her campaign. The Congress workers also distributed a handwritten appeal among voters visiting door to door.
However, the election moved towards radiclisation after Pragya called it a ‘Dharm Yuddh’, saying she was “proud of helping raze Babri Masjid”, and Digvijay Singh visiting temples and getting the support of hundreds of sadhus led by Computer Baba.
Berasia and Sehore assembly segments bewildered the political circles by recording highest turnout- Sehore 77% and Berasia over 76%. Bhopal North (66.65%), Narela (64.9%) and Huzur (67.6%) assembly areas also registered significant increase in turnout.
BJP Spokesman Rajneesh Agrawal told ‘The Pioneer’ that the rise in polling percent would certainly help the BJP. It is only the BJP that earnestly works towards bringing the voters to booths and the increased percent of voters chose the BJP, he added.
Media Coordinator of the Congress Shobha Oza said that the high polling per cent clearly indicates that Congress candidate Digvijay Singh is winning the election and he is visionary leader and campaigned properly upto grass root level in almost all the assembly segments. “People did come out to vote for Digvijay Singh, teaching a lesson to the accused of terror attack Sadhvi Pragya,” she added.