Legislative Assembly elections were held in Madhya Pradesh on 17 November 2023 to elect all 230 members of Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly. The results were declared on 3 December 2023.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led by Shivraj Singh Chouhan fought the election against the Congress. BJP secured a landslide victory in the election. However, after the results were declared, Mohan Yadav, a relatively unknown face, was appointed as the chief minister by the national leadership of the BJP.
Background The tenure of the Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly is scheduled to end on 6 January 2024. The previous assembly elections were held in November 2018. After the election, Indian National Congress formed the state government, with Kamal Nath becoming the Chief Minister.
Political development
In March 2020, 22 Congress MLAs resigned from the assembly, and defected to Bharatiya Janata Party along with Jyotiraditya Scindia, resulting in the collapse of the state government and resignation by Chief Minister Kamal Nath. Subsequently BJP formed the state government, with Shivraj Singh Chouhan becoming Chief Minister.
Poll rigging and violence During the voting process in 2023 Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly election, the murder of four people belonging to Rajput caste took place in Chakrampur village of Shivpuri district. This incident happened on 17 November 2023, when some people belonging to Kushwaha caste were allegedly trying to do frivolous voting in the favour of Indian National Congress, Kailash Kushwah at the Chakrampur polling booth in Shivpuri district. When stopped by Rajput people, who were supporters of the Bharatiya Janata Party candidate, the people belonging to Kushwaha caste allegedly surrounded them and tried to burn them alive inside their vehicle when they left the polling booth. On being unsuccessful in their attempt, the perpetrators thrashed them badly, leading to the deaths of four Rajput people belonging to the same family.
This village falls under Pohari Assembly constituency and there was massive protest by the people belonging to Rajput caste after the incident.
Schedule
The schedule of the election was announced by the Election Commission of India on 9 October 2023. Poll eventScheduleNotification date21 October 2023Start of nomination21 October 2023Last date for filing nomination30 October 2023Scrutiny of nomination31 October 2023Last date for withdrawal of nomination2 November 2023Date of poll17 November 2023Date of counting of votes3 December 2023
Parties and alliances Source: Alliance/partyFlagSymbolLeaderSeats contestedBharatiya Janata PartyShivraj Singh Chouhan230Indian National CongressKamal Nath230Rowspan="2" BSP+Bahujan Samaj PartyRamakant Pippal181218Gondwana Ganatantra PartyTuleshwar Singh Markam37Azad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram) Chandra Shekhar Aazad86Samajwadi PartyRamayana Singh Patel71Aam Aadmi PartyRani Agrawal66 Janata Dal (United)Afaque Ahmed Khan10 Communist Party of IndiaArvind Srivastava9Bharat Adivasi Party Mohan Lal Roat8All India Forward Bloc7All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul MuslimeenSayyad Minhajuddin4Communist Party of India (Marxist)Jaswinder Singh4Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) 292 registered (unrecognised) parties423Independent1186
Candidates