Indore (Madhya Pradesh): Indore best exemplifies the complete dominance the BJP has shown over the Congress in the Assembly elections 2023 in the state as it swept to victory on all the nine Assembly seats in the district. This is the first time after 1993 that the BJP has won all the seats in the district.
Indore-1: Winner Kailash Vijayvargiya (BJP), Margin 57939
Kailash remains ‘Invincible’
Kailash Vijayvargiya maintained his record of not losing any election. The BJP general secretary has won this election by a margin of 57,939 votes. Kailash Vijayvargiya got 158,123 votes while Sanjay Shukla got as many as 100,814 votes.
From the first round of counting, Vijayvargiya took the lead over Shukla and it continued to increase with every round. Shukla remained in the stadium since 8 am and was sitting with his son outside the counting hall and kept taking updates of the counting of votes.
Vijayvargiya did not reach the stadium during the counting but reached the BJP office at 4 pm. His supporters gathered outside the stadium and kept bursting fireworks after every round. During the counting of votes, there was not a single round in which there was any doubt about Vijayvargiya's lead. He was also confident of his victory and gave credit to Modi magic for the same.
Indore 2: Winner Ramesh Mendola (BJP), Margin 107,047
Ramesh Mendola broke all his old records and won the election with the highest number of votes in the state. He got 169,071 votes against his opponent Chintu Choukse of Congress who got 62,024 votes.
Mendola continued to lead from the first round of counting and Chintu Choukse couldn’t even come close to that. There was not a single round when Chintu could come close to the votes received by Mendola. Known as ‘Dada Dayalu’ among his supporters, Mendola crushed Congress’ dreams of decreasing the lead from this constituency and even increased the margin to a record level.
Chintu Choukse, who had given a good fight to the BJP in the IMC elections couldn’t make any change in the record history of Mendola. Both the candidates did not reach the stadium during the counting and later Mendola reached to collect his certificate. Ramesh Mendola has been winning the election from Indore-2 since 2008 and broke his own record of winning with the highest margin of 91,000 votes in 2013.
Indore-3: Winner Golu Shukla (BJP), Margin 14,757
Pintu’s hope shatters after second round
The results of Indore-3 surprised political pundits who were claiming the win of Congress candidate Pintu Joshi from the seat. However, BJP candidate Golu Shukla won the seat with a margin of 14,757 votes and shattered the dream of Joshi who was also contesting the election for the first time like his opponent.
Golu Shukla got a total of 73,541 votes while Pintu Joshi got 58,784 votes. In the initial two rounds, Joshi was leading by about 1,300 votes but in the twist of tale Pintu lagged behind in round 3 and could not make a comeback.
Although there were some rounds in between when once again there was hope for Pintu's victory, but this did not last long. The Congress workers began celebrating early after the initial two rounds but in the third round Shukla took a lead by 1,315 votes and didn’t look back.
In the fourth round, the difference reached around five thousand but in the sixth, Congress got hopeful again after Golu's lead was reduced from five thousand to 2,380, but Golu remained ahead in all the subsequent rounds and ultimately won the contest.
Pintu remained in the stadium during the counting of votes. He expected that the situation would change after a few rounds but it did not. At around 3 pm, he returned from the stadium disappointed with his supporters.
Indore -4: Winner Malini Gaud (BJP), Margin 69,837
BJP remains invincible in its 'Ayodhya'
Indore Assembly constituency-4 that has been a strong castle for the saffron party for a long time remained its unbreachable fort this time too. BJP candidate Malini Gaud won this seat by a margin of 69,837 votes as per the ECI website.
With every passing round Malini continued to increase her lead from her nearest rival and Congress party candidate PL Raja Mandhwani. At the end of the 16th and final round Malini had received 118,870 votes while Mandhwani had got just 49,033 votes. Thus her victory margin was 69,837 votes. The candidate from the Aam Aadmi Party Dr Piyush Joshi could garner just 3,374 votes. A total of 1986 people opted for None of The Above (NOTA). Except Mandhwani, rest of the seven candidates even failed to protect their security deposit. This is the third victory for Malini Gaud from the seat. The BJP has been winning this seat continuously since 1998 that’s why it is considered as ‘Ayodhya of BJP’.
Indore -5: Winner Mahendra Hardia (BJP), Margin 15,671
After see-saw, Hardia finally wins
From the 9 seats of the district, an interesting fight was seen in Assembly constituency Indore-5. From 19 rounds at some points BJP candidate Mahendra Hardia was marginally ahead over his nearest rival and Congress party candidate Satyanarayan Patel. While in other rounds Patel was having edge against Hardia. The situation arose, when the votes of EVMs of Muslim-dominated areas like Khajrana and Musakhedi-Azad Nagar polling booths were counted. Patel secured lead over Hardia. But when the votes of EVMs of Hindu-dominated polling booths were counted, Hardiya turned the tables on Patel.
From contesting 16 candidates, the BJP rival won the election by a margin of 15,671 votes by securing a total of 144,733 votes. While Congress party candidate Satya Narayana Patel could manage only 129,062 votes. Candidates from Aam Admi Party (AAP) Vinod Tyagi, All India Majlis-E-Itehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) Faisal Waseem Shaikh and from Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) Salim Pathan also contested along with 9 other independent candidates. None of the candidates got more votes than what NOTA received (1,549).
Rau: Winner Madhu Verma (BJP), Margin 35,522
Humble Madhu Verma takes revenge & defeats Patwari
In a one-sided flight, humble leader and BJP candidate Madhu Verma defeated his nearest rival and Congress party candidate Jitu Patwari by a margin of 35,522 votes this time by securing a total of 151672 votes. Patwari managed to get 116150 votes.
Thus Verma took revenge for his last defeat at the hands of Patwari, who had defeated him in 2018 Assembly elections. Verma’s win is also important because Patwari is considered as a high-profile leader of the Congress party, having the post of the State executive president.
Interestingly, 2104 voters pressed NOTA which was the third highest. The rest of the eight candidates could not get votes even in four figures. Devki Mandloi contesting from BSP, Akash Bodade from Republican Party of India (A), and Mohan Songara Golu from Azad Samaj Party were also contesting, but failed to leave any impact in the election. Right from beginning to end of the 23 rounds of counting Madhu Verma kept on increasing his lead against his closest rival and Congress party candidate Jitu Patwari.
Mhow: Winner Usha Thakur (BJP), Margin 34,392
Usha Thakur repeats victory from same seat for the first time
Usha Thakur, a firebrand leader of BJP secured victory for the second time from the same seat for the first time. Cabinet Minister Thakur registered the win from Mhow Assembly constituency by a margin of 34,392 votes by securing 102989 votes. Interestingly, she defeated her close rival and independent candidate, who is a rebel of the Congress party, Anter Singh Darbar. Darbar who had lost to Thakur in the last Assembly election too, secured 68,597 votes, while Congress party candidate Ramkishore Shukla ‘Bhaiyaji’ received just 29,144 votes. Another independent Pradeep Mavi Jays got 11394 votes. Communist Party of India (Marxist) was also fighting the election from here. Its candidate Arjun Singh Chouhan, though could not show any magic and received just 978 votes. The remaining six candidates could not get the votes even in four figures. NOTA polled 1553 votes. This was the third election of Usha Thakur, earlier she had won from Indore-1 and Indore-3 once.
Depalpur: Winner Manoj Patel (BJP), Margin 13,698
Despite ups and downs BJP succeeds in snatching seat from Congress
Despite ups and downs seen during the counting of votes and the presence of BJP rebel candidate Rajendra Choudhary, BJP succeeded in snatching this seat from the Congress party.
In the Khati community-dominated seat Depalpur, BJP candidate Manoj Patel won the election by a margin of 13,698 votes by getting a total of 95,577 votes defeating his nearest rival and Congress party candidate and also sitting MLA Vishal Patel, who secured 81,879 votes.
Independent candidate and BJP rebel, who basically comes from RSS background Rajendra Choudhary received 37,920 votes. It was considered that Choudhary would give a dent in the votes of BJP, but now it seems that he split Khati community votes, which ultimately gave a jolt to Congress candidate Vishal Patel. Of the 13 candidates, besides Patel duo and Choudhary only Bahujan Mukti Party candidate Sohan Devishingh Solanki along with NOTA got votes in four figures - 1,242 and 1,151 respectively. The rest of the candidates, including BSP candidate Ankur Mishra, could get votes just in three figures.
Sanwer: Winner Tulsiram Silawat (BJP), Margin 68,854
Silawat increases victory margin
Tulsiram Silawat, Cabinet Minister of the State, increased his victory margin in this election as compared to the by-election he had won earlier.
Silawat secured victory by 68,854 votes by securing 151048 votes against his nearest rival and Congress party candidate Reena Bourasi, who received 82194 votes. Sanwer is actually the traditional constituency of Silawat and he has been continuously winning from there. There were 5 other candidates fighting the election. These include Seema Gokul Goyal from Bhahujan Samaj Party, Vindo Yadav Ahbedkar from Azad Samaj Party (Kansi Ram) and 3 other independents, but no one could save their security amount and lost the battle badly. In the last election, which was a by-election Silawat had secured victory by over 55,000 votes. This time he has broken his own victory record.
