Madhya Pradesh (MP) state assembly’s tenure will be completed in January 2024. Before that, the state must choose the upcoming assembly members through elections that are supposed to happen in November this year. However, the exact date is still to be finalized by the government. Both Indian National Congress (INC) and Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) are expecting their dominance based on socio-political and economic dynamics in MP. After securing an impressive majority in the Karnataka state elections in May, INC is more confident and has included in its slogan to repeat the same enthusiasm in Madhya Pradesh also. The BJP officials, for their part, negate any such implications of Karnataka’s election results in MP. Socio-economic and political dynamics of each state vary. Therefore, it is important not to extrapolate much from a previous instance. MP election results will depend upon taking into account multiple factors ranging from economic, ethnic, and social factors to the performance of the current BJP government under Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan.
Madhya Pradesh is the second largest state of India in terms of area and contributes significantly to political aspects. The 7.27 crore population is divided into Hindus at 90.89%, Muslims at 6.57%, Jains at 0.78%, and 0.83%. MP is the Indian state with the most tribal population that also carries the most reserved seats in the state assembly compared to others. As of now, the state legislative assembly has 230 seats, of which 35 are reserved for scheduled castes and 47 for scheduled tribes.[1] The state contributes 29 seats in the Lok Sabha elections making it one of the politically significant states in India. Although BJP and INC remain the dominant political parties in the state, there are other parties as well including the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) that somehow also play a role in determining state politics.
