BackModi’s demonetisation move gets a thumbs up in Madhya Pradesh as BJP wins bypolls
BJP registers impressive wins in bypolls for Nepanagar assembly constituency and Shahdol Lok Sabha constituency in Madhya Pradesh after the demonetisation move
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Mumbai: In a major morale booster after the demonetisation announcement, the Bharatiya Janata Party has registered impressive wins in two bypolls for Nepanagar assembly constituency and Shahdol Lok Sabha constituency in Madhya Pradesh.
BJP’s Gyan Singh, who is a senior minister in chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s cabinet, trounced his Congress rival Himadri Singh by nearly 58,000 votes in the bypoll for the tribal-dominated Shahdol Lok Sabha seat.
BJP’s Manju Dadu, daughter of late BJP MLA Rajendra Dadu who died in an accident necessitating the bypoll, won the Nepanagar assembly seat in Madhya Pradesh’s Burhanpur district defeating Congress nominee Antar Singh Barde by over 42,000 votes. Polling for both the seats took place on November 19. Dadu’s win takes the BJP strength in the 230-member Madhya Pradesh assembly to 165. The Congress, the main opposition party, has 56 MLAs.
Both Nepanagar and Shahdol seats are reserved for the Scheduled Caste (ST) candidates. The bypoll for Shahdol seat was necessitated by BJP MP Dalpat Singh Paraste who in the 2014 general elections won the seat by over 2.14 lakh votes.
Senior Madhya Pradesh minister and government’s spokesperson Narottam Mishra said the BJP’s performance in both the bypolls confirmed that people had endorsed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s demonetisation programme.
“Our victory in Nepanagar and march towards victory in Shahdol is a tight slap on the faces of those parties and politicians who opposed demonetisation and created an exaggerated picture of difficulties people were facing. Voters in Madhya Pradesh have given their mandate for demonetisation and the development agenda of both the Modi government and the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government," Mishra said.
He accused the Congress of spreading rumours about demonetisation among people. “People have rejected this mischievous and anti-national campaign," Mishra told reporters after the election results were declared.
Madhya Pradesh Congress spokesperson K. K. Mishra said the party needed to introspect over the bypoll outcome and find out what went wrong.
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