Vibha Sharma
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, December 12
After a night of nail-biting suspense, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan conceded defeat to the Congress and resigned from the position on Wednesday—bringing his three-term rule to an end.
Chouhan’s Bharatiya Janata Party missed the halfway mark by a whisker—they got 109 seats against Congress party’s 114. Even until Wednesday morning, Chouhan was holding on to the hope of being able to stitch up an alliance to form a government in the state.
This assembly election has been one of the most exciting ones seen in recent times, with counting continuing late into the night and into the small hours of Wednesday.
Chouhan’s development came within minutes of Dalit leader Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party announcing that she would support a Congress government to keep the BJP “out of power”.
Even in the defeat, however, Chouhan went down fighting, emerging as formidable leader, even a serious contender to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's supremacy in the party.
A Congress led by Jyotiraditya Scindia, Kamal Nath and Digvijay Singh met Governor Anandiben Patel on Wednesday afternoon.
“We have the support of 122 MLAs,” Congress leader Narendra Saluja told ANI after the meeting.