Madhya Pradesh Assembly Election 2023

Madhya Pradesh is witnessing polling for its 230-member legislative Assembly in a single phase on November 17, 2023. The BJP-ruled state is among five states undergoing polls for 230 legislative assembly seats. Since the state sends 40 representatives to Parliament — 29 to the Lok Sabha and 11 to the Rajya Sabha, the assembly election is likely to set the stage for the major electoral exercise ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. The ruling BJP and the Indian National Congress (INC) are fighting against each other to form the next government in the state.

The last date of nomination for the candidate was on October 20, and October 21 was the last date for the scrutiny of papers of candidates. The counting of votes will take place on December 3. The tenure of the current legislative assembly would end on January 6, 2024. Shivraj Singh Chouhan of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is the current Chief Minister and Mangubhai C Patel is the current Governor of Madhya Pradesh.

Established as a distinct state in 1950 after Independence, Madhya Pradesh witnessed the first general elections for legislative assembly in the newly formed state in 1952. Congress party dominated the political scene of the state for several decades after the Independence. Later, opposition groups such as the Janata Party, the BJP and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) rose to prominence and started challenging the Congress’s hegemony.

During the 1980s and 1990s, the BJP grew as a significant political force in the state. In November 2018 assembly election, the Congress formed the government with Kamal Nath becoming the Chief Minister, but in March 2020, 22 Congress MLAs defected to the BJP along with Jyotiraditya Scindia, resulting in the collapse of the Kamal Nath government. The BJP then formed the government under Shivraj Singh Chouhan, and most of the defected MLAs were re-elected on the BJP symbol in the by-election.