MP: By-elections on October 30 may decide CM Chouhan's fate

Bhopal: Much awaited by-elections in three Assembly segments and one Lok Sabha seat in Madhya Pradesh will be held on October 30 while the counting of votes will take place on November 2, the Election Commission (EC) announced on Tuesday.

The results of the bypolls in Khandwa Lok Sabha seat and Prithvipur, Jobat and Raigaon Assembly segments which are lying vacant after the untimely demise of the legislators due to Covid-19 in the state, may decide the fate of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan over changing the leadership in the state.

Bhartiya Janta Party Lok Sabha MP and former state chief of the party, Nand Kumar Singh Chouhan alias Nandu Bhaiya died of Covid-19 on March 2 this year. He was a six-term MP from the Khandwa constituency. The seat was considered a stronghold of Chouhan.

The bypolls are considered to be important for both political parties ruling BJP and Opposition Congress because this might be a litmus test for the 2023 general Assembly elections. The BJP has recently changed three CMs in three states, Gujrat, Karnataka, and Uttarakhand.

Speculations over changing the leadership in other states including Madhya Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh have been fueling inside the BJP for some months. The results of four bypolls including a Lok Sabha would decide the fate of MP CM Chouhan. Chouhan took an oath as a CM fourth time of the state in March 2020. Both political parties have started preparation for the bypolls some months ago and Chouhan has visited the constituencies many times. Chouhan is leaving no stone unturned to woo voters of the segments while Congress is filled up with confidence after getting a grand success in the recently held bypolls in the Damoh Assembly seat that was fallen vacant after its party MLA Rahul Lodhi quit.

Prithipur Assembly constituency in the newly made district Niwari of Bundelkhand region is lying vacant after the demise of senior Congress leader Brijendra Singh Rathore who was five times MLA from the seat and had once made a record of victory by securing maximum votes in the state.

The other two Assembly seats, where the bypolls are to be held, Jobat and Raigaon are reserved for Schedule Tribe and Schedule cast respectively and have been laid vacant after the demise of Kalawati Bhuria and Jugal Kishore Bagari in order by.

In the 2018 Assembly general elections, Jabat was on Congress while Raigaon was on BJP side.