A landslide for the BJP on a smaller map
What happened
Bharatiya Janata Party won power in Madhya Pradesh in a landslide, ending outgoing ten-year Chief Minister Digvijaya Singh's Indian National Congress government.1
It won 173 of the 230 seats, a supermajority of the assembly.
That left it 57 seats clear of a majority.
It took 75.2% of the seats on 42.5% of the vote.
The INC suffered a collapse, falling to 38 seats on 31.6% of the vote.
- 1Digvijaya Singh Again Contests Raghogarh Seeking a Third Term — Digvijaya Singh
The campaign
On 13 March 2003 the Supreme Court struck down Section 33B of the Representation of the People Act and required candidates to disclose their criminal cases, assets, liabilities and education. The Election Commission required such affidavits from Madhya Pradesh's nominees for the poll that November.2
The BJP named sitting Lok Sabha MP Uma Bharti its chief ministerial candidate. She contested an assembly seat for the first time, standing in Malehra, and won it by a 25 percent margin.3
Bharti's campaign centred on a 'bijli, sadak, paani' — electricity, roads, water — plank, targeting the Congress government's infrastructure and power-supply record under ten-year Chief Minister Digvijaya Singh.4
Singh himself stood again in his home seat of Raghogarh, seeking a third consecutive term there even as his party lost heavily across the state. Voting was held in a single phase on 27 November 2003, across all 230 constituencies.15
- 1Digvijaya Singh Again Contests Raghogarh Seeking a Third Term — Digvijaya Singh
- 2Supreme Court Strikes Down Section 33B, Forces Candidate Disclosure — People's Union Of Civil Liberties (PUCL) And Another vs Union Of India And Another on 13 March, 2003, Tuesday, October 7, 2003, Chandigarh, India (Tribune main report on EC schedule)
- 3Uma Bharti Named BJP's CM Candidate, Contests Malhera — Uma Bharti, Uma Bharti
- 4BJP Fights 2003 Campaign on 'Bijli, Sadak, Paani' Plank — Power cuts are back to haunt Digvijaya Singh in MP, Decoding Mamaji: What Makes Shivraj Singh Chouhan The Mainstay Of Madhya Pradesh's Politics
- 5Madhya Pradesh Votes in a Single Phase on 27 November 2003 — 2003 Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly election
What changed
INC's winning streak in the state came to an end.
It had won 2 elections in a row before this one.
The single biggest movement ran from INC to BJP, covering 96 of the 140 seats that changed hands.
BJP itself grew from 119 seats to 173 seats this time.
Turnout, the share of registered voters who actually cast a ballot, rose to 67.2% — the highest the state had recorded to that point.
Notable numbers
The closest race was Amla, Madhya Pradesh, decided by 398 votes — a margin, how far ahead the winner finished over whoever came second.
Rewa, Madhya Pradesh had the widest margin of any seat, with the winner ahead by 40.5% of the vote.
Waraseoni, Madhya Pradesh recorded the highest turnout of any seat, 82.9%.
Jobat, Madhya Pradesh recorded the lowest, 46.9%.
Bhopal South, Madhya Pradesh was the largest constituency by registered voters, with 4,22,648 names on the rolls.
The most crowded contest was Lahar, Madhya Pradesh, where 27 candidates stood for one seat.
The backdrop
Madhya Pradesh was formed in November 1956 under the States Reorganisation Act, merging the former Madhya Pradesh, Madhya Bharat, Vindhya Pradesh and Bhopal state.6
The BJP first won a majority there in 1990, when Sunderlal Patwa was sworn in as chief minister after the party took 220 of the assembly's then 320 seats.7
The assembly shrank when the state's eastern districts split off to form the new state of Chhattisgarh, taking 90 of its seats with them.8
- 6Madhya Pradesh Formed By 1956 States Reorganisation — Madhya Pradesh (1956–2000) — Wikipedia
- 7BJP's 1990 Assembly Majority In Madhya Pradesh — 1990 Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly election — Wikipedia
- 8Chhattisgarh's Creation Shrinks Madhya Pradesh's Assembly — Madhya Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2000 — Wikipedia