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Madhya Pradesh Cliffhanger: Congress One Short Of Majority But Claims Victory

According to the latest updates from the election commission website, the Congress has won 113 seats and is leading on one seat whereas the BJP has secured victory on 109 seats
Scindia and Nath in a file photo
The Quint
Scindia and Nath in a file photo

With the result of one seat still to be declared, Madhya Pradesh has kept everyone guessing with no party is likely to cross the simple majority mark of 115 in the 230-member state assembly.

The Congress party, however, claimed to have secured "clear majority" in a press conference at 2.30 am at the party's state headquarters in Madhya Pradesh's capital Bhopal.

According to the latest updates from the election commission website, Congress has won 113 seats and is leading on one seat whereas BJP has secured victory on 109 seats.

The Bahujan Samaj Party and Samajwadi Party have won two and one seats respectively.

Four seats went to independents.

However, Congress leadership appeared in no mood to take chances after the bitter experiences of Karnataka and Goa.

Madhya Pradesh Congress president Kamal Nath wrote to the Governor Anandiben Patel at 10.30 pm seeking a meeting with her late night on Tuesday "as soon as the results are declared".

"The Congress party has emerged as the single largest party with majority support. All the independents have in addition assured support to the Congress party," Kamal Nath claimed in his letter to the Governor.

During the early morning press conference, Kamal Nath and Jyotiraditya Scindia reiterated that the Congress has secured "clear majority" in this assembly election, however, it was not yet clear as to how many independent MLAs are going to side with the Congress.

The Samajwadi Party has indicated that it would extend support to the Congress which is likely to help the grand old party secure a simple majority in the assembly, however, all eyes will be on senior BJP leader and former Chief Minister of Gujarat Patel on Wednesday.

The counting of votes is still in progress for Mehgoan assembly segment where the Congress's OPS Bhadoria is leading by over 24,000 votes.

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This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.