Raipur (Chhattisgarh): As it surged to victory in the tribal heartland of Chhattisgarh, the BJP claimed a significant vote share of 46.27 per cent to 42.23 per cent of the incumbent Congress.
According to the data shared by the Election Commission (EC) as votes for four states -- Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Telangana -- were counted on Sunday, the BJP secured an absolute majority, winning 54 seats while the Congress trailed at 35 seats.
A total of 1,181 candidates across parties pitted themselves against each other for the 90-member Chhattisgarh assembly.
The polling in the state was held in two phases, with the first on November 7 featuring 223 candidates and the second seeing 958 candidates put their electoral fates to the test on November 17.
The major contenders in the battle for the hustings in Chhatisgarh were the BJP, Congress, Janta Congress Chhattisgarh (JCC) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).
Other regional outfits such as the Gondwana Gantantra Party (GGP), the Hamar Raj Party (HRP) and the Left parties were also in the fray.
Even as the Congress failed to secure a fresh term at the helm, outgoing Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, who faced allegations of receiving payoffs in excess of Rs 500 crores from the promoters of the Mahadev betting app, scored a face-saving over his distant nephew and BJP candidate Vijay Baghel, from the Patan constituency, by a margin of 19,723 votes.
BJP stalwart and former CM Raman Singh, who came to be regarded as one of the longest-serving chief ministers of any state while at the helm of Chhattisgarh, prevailed over Congress's Girish Dewangan from the Rajnandgaon constituency by a margin of 45,084 votes.
The Naxal stronghold of Bastar, which was in focus because of the demographic dominance of tribal communities, saw the Congress's Baghel Lakheshwar win over the BJP's Maniram Kashyap by a slender margin of 6,434 votes.
Meanwhile, in North Raipur, BJP candidate Purandar Mishra trounced Congress's Kuldeep Singh Juneja by 23,054 votes.
In the South Raipur constituency, Brijmohan Aggarwal of the BJP coasted to a win over Congress's Mahant Ramsundar Das by 67,719 votes.
In West Raipur, too, the BJP's Rajesh Munat emerged victorious over the Congress's Vikas Upadhyay by 41,229 votes.
In rural Raipur, Motilal Sahu of the BJP defeated Congress's Pankaj Sharma by 35,750 votes.
Corruption allegations, particularly with regard to recruitment for government jobs, and the alleged Mahadev betting scam became major political talking points leading up to the Chhattisgarh elections.
The BJP's win in Chhattisgarh defied exit-poll projections, which pointed to a close contest and an eventual win for the Congress.
The resounding mandate for the BJP in the tribal heartland is also being seen as a thumbs down to the Congress's caste census pledge.
During the campaign, Congress leaders had promised to conduct a caste census in the state if voted back, saying it would enable it to provide the backward communities their due on the basis of their population.
However, as the results showed, the caste-census pitch clearly didn't wash with the electorate in the state.
—ANI
