State Elections 2018: No EVM Brouhaha As BJP Exits Gracefully; Congress Struggles With Internal Rivalries Despite Clear Majority

While the fog over which party will win how many seats in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Telangana and Mizoram assemblies has finally cleared, it is replaced by suspense over government formation politics, especially in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.

Although in Rajasthan, the Congress has managed to secure a comfortable majority of 99 seats in the 199 seat state assembly, its ranks remain divided over the choice of the next chief minister.

A number of Congress MLAs and rebels like Manju Meghwal, Laxman Meena, Vinod Kumar Lilawat, Shanti Dhariwal, Manju Panwar, Ameen Kagzi and rebels Ramkesh Meena, Kanti Lal Meena and Babulal Nagar today (12 December) gathered at Congress leader Ashok Gehlot’s residence in Jaipur, in a show of strength to demand that he be made the CM, reports Hindustan Times.

Independent MLAs Kanti Lal and Ramkesh Meena have stated that they will support a Congress government, but only if it was led by Gehlot as chief minister.

The other possible choice is Sachin Pilot, the state president of the Congress party and one of the party’s leading campaigners in the state. The Congress will hold a Congress Legislature Party (CLP) today to pass a resolution on who will be the next chief minister of the state.

In Madhya Pradesh, the chief ministerial choice for the Congress is becoming clearer as a Congress delegation led by Kamal Nath met with the governor, Anandiben Patel, today to stake their claim to government formation, reports Financial Express.

The Congress is short of full majority in MP, managing to win 114 seats out of the total 230, but Congress’s confidence has been buoyed by assurances of support from the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), with two MLAs, and the Samajwadi Party (SP), with one.

Despite a landslide victory over 68 out of total 90 seats in Chhattisgarh, The situation remains murky with the Congress holding a party meet today in Raipur to decide the chief minister between two forerunners, the Congress' Lok Sabha MP Tamradhwaj Sahu, and state party chief Bhupesh Baghel, reports NDTV.

In Telangana, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) supremo K Chandrashekhar Rao will take oath for his second term as Chief Minister at 1.30 pm tomorrow (Thursday, 13 December), after his party swept the state assembly polls, as per a report by NDTV.

Another government formation process sans drama is taking place in Mizoram, where Mizo National Front (MNF) chief Zoramthanga met with Governor Kummanam Rajasekharan yesterday evening (Tuesday, 11 December) to stake claim to form the new government, reports Moneycontrol.