Madhya Pradesh exit polls 2018: All you need to know

All eyes will be on exit polls for Madhya Pradesh elelctions 2018 on Friday evening when they will be aired by television news channels after voting for the assembly elections in all the five states are completed.

The Election Commission had imposed a nearly month-long ban on holding exit or opinion poll, a survey of voters after they exit polling stations but are known to often get it wrong, beginning November 12 in the five poll-bound states.

More than 50 million voters cast their ballots as the single-phase poll for the state’s 230 assembly seats was held on November 28 in the state to decide whether the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has ruled the state since 2003, will be fourth time lucky.

The voter turnout, excluding postal ballots, was 74.85% in the central state.

The BJP fielded candidates for all 230 seats while the Congress contested 229, leaving one seat, Jatara in Tikamgarh district, for the Sharad Yadav-led Loktantrik Janata Dal (LJD).

It was essentially a direct fight between the BJP and the Congress, although Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party (SP) were also in the fray.

The central state is politically important in terms of its size geographically as well as politically. The largest of five states going for polls and contributes the largest number of MPs to the Lok Sabha (29) among them.

Both the Congress and BJP, whose charge was led by party president Rahul Gandhi and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, respectively, expressed confidence that they would win. BJP president Amit Shah, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath and Union ministers Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley also campaigned for the BJP in the state.

Gandhi sought to rejuvenate the state unit by appointing veteran Kamal Nath as the Madhya Pradesh party chief in April this year and naming Jyotiraditya Scindia as the campaign leader.

The BJP also replaced its state president in Madhya Pradesh where its campaign it led by Chouhan. The BJP has been in power in Madhya Pradesh for last 15 years and was perceived to be facing what some party leaders describe as a voter fatigue.

Gandhi attacked Modi and his government for alleged corruption and failure to fulfil promises made in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections and by Chouhan in 2013, and has promised a farm loan waiver within 10 days if the Congress is voted to power. Modi also took a jibe at the Congress for alleged corruption during its years in power and accused it of promoting dynastic politics.

Votes will be counted on December 11.

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