The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won a stunning victory in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly Elections of 2023 on Sunday, securing a sizable 164 seats in the state. This result completely defied earlier exit polls, which expected a close race between the Congress and the BJP, while the saffron party won by a landslide. The BJP won 164 seats in the Madhya Pradesh Vidhan Sabha Chunav, leaving the Congress in second place with 65. Shivraj Singh Chouhan, the incumbent Chief Minister and BJP candidate from Budhni, won by a wide margin of 1,64,951 votes, with a total of 1,04,974 votes cast. Chouhan's opponent, Congress leader Vikram Mastal Sharma, garnered only 59,977 votes.
The outcome would have been different if the BJP had not won a landslide victory in the Madhya Pradesh assembly elections. In such a circumstance, there might have been pressure to install Shivraj as CM, since his loyalist MLAs might have threatened to resign and change the state's electoral dynamics. The BJP had not identified Shivraj as the CM face prior to the election, and it was thought that if the BJP won, it would alter the CM. However, after gaining a huge majority, removing the CM may have a negative impact on the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Here are the key winners: Shivraj Singh Chouhan is the state's chief minister; Union Minister Narendra Singh Tomar; Prahlad Patel, a Union Minister; National General Secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya; Rakesh Singh, a member of Parliament; Kamal Nath, state president of the Congress; Congress Youth President Vikrant Bhuria; Arif Masood, a member of Congress; Atif Aqueel, a member of the Congress Party; Ajay Singh, the Congress Party's leader; Kamleshwar Dodiyar, Bhartiya Adiwasi Party.
