Malwa-Nimar which happened to be the stronghold of the Congress as compared to other regions in Madhya Pradesh has played a key role in its (Congress party) crushing defeat in the just concluded Assembly elections.
In the last Assembly elections (2008), the party candidates had been elected from 24 seats, while in 2013 elections, its seat tally has been reduced to merely 9, thereby making it loose from 15 Assembly seats which it had won in the last elections. On the other hand, the Bharatiya Janata Party has further strengthened its position by winning 56 Assembly seats from the region out of 66 Assembly seats.
Malwa-Nimar which together constitutes a total of 66 Assembly segments, the largest in Madhya Pradesh, has always played anchor role in deciding the fate of either the BJP or the Congress in Madhya Pradesh. History is replete with examples whichever party won majority of seats from the region, was elected to power.
In the current elections also, the Congress party had pinned high hopes from the region and hoped that it would better its performances from 2008 elections so as to enable the party form its government in the state after a political wilderness of 10 years. The Congress had left no effort unturned to ensure increase its tally of seats from the last elections and accordingly had arranged election rallies of top-notch party leaders including the AICC chairperson Sonia Gandhi and the Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi but the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi’s six rallies in the region during a span of 2 days and also the jan ashirwad yatra of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan in the region almost toppled the poll calculations of the Congress, thereby making the BJP increase its seat tally from the region from 41 in the last assembly elections to 56 in the current elections.
On the other hand, the Congress party’s tally of seats in the region was reduced from 24 in 2008 elections to 9 in the current elections.
Among various constituencies, tribal hinterland of Dhar-Jhabua and Alirajpur constituting a total of 12 assembly seats had always been considered to be the citadel of the Congress but in this tribal hinterland also, the Congress suffered a lethal blow. In Alirajpur and Jhabua district, the home turf of state Congress chief Kantilal Bhuria, party lost all the five assembly seats to the BJP, while out of seven assembly seats in Dhar district, the Congress managed to win from only two seats.
In the last Assembly elections, the BJP had emerged victorious only from three seats out of seven. If this was not enough, the worst for the Congress came from Ujjain, Ratlam, Shajapur, Dewas, Neemuch, Burhanpur, Khandwa and Agar district, where the Congress candidates have been routed in all 31 Assembly seats.