Indore (Madhya Pradesh) [India] : With the voting for Madhya Pradesh assembly seats underway, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) National General Secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya on Friday expressed confidence on the formation of a double-engine government in the state and said that the party will win more than 150 seats.
The BJP candidate from Indore 1 said, “I would like to request all the voters to cast their votes. BJP will form the government in Madhya Pradesh, and a double-engine government will be formed here. We will do development work like we did earlier. We will win more than 150 seats.”
With the commencement of the Madhya Pradesh assembly polls early this morning, BJP candidate Kailash Vijayvargiya offered prayers at his residence in Indore.
The BJP leader also offered prayers at a temple in Indore.
BJP leader and son of Kailash Vijayvargiya, Akash Vijayvargiya also exuded confidence in the party’s win on Friday and said, “We will form the government comfortably and run it efficiently.”
Vijayvargiya is one of the BJP party’s heavyweights and has been roped in by the central leadership to contest in the state. He has been fielded from the Indore-1 constituency.
The former Indore mayor has been pitted against Congress’ Sanjay Shukla. Though Shukla had won the 2018 assembly elections from Indore-1, the constituency had traditionally been a BJP stronghold.
Voting for Madhya Pradesh’s 230 assembly seats began at 7 a.m. today.
The voters can cast their ballots until 6 p.m., except in the Baihar, Lanji, and Parswara assembly seats of Balaghat district and some booths in Mandla and Dindori districts, where voting will be held until 3 p.m.
BJP is seeking to retain power in the state where it has ruled for almost 18 of the past 20 years and Congress is keen to oust the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government.
The webcasting facility has been made available at about 42,000 polling stations. Nearly 700 companies of the central forces and two lakh police personnel of the state have been deployed for security during the poll.
The election will decide the electoral fate of over 2,500 candidates.
Nearly 5.59 crore voters are eligible to exercise their franchise. It includes 2.87 crore male and 2.71 crore women voters.
There are over 5,000 booths run by women and 183 polling stations run by the disabled, officials said.
The polls, coming nearly six months ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, are crucial for both the BJP and Congress for various reasons.
BJP has been in power in the state since 2003, except for a nearly 15-month period in between. Madhya Pradesh will vote for all its 230 seats in a single phase and the counting of votes, with four other states, will be taken up on December 3.