It will not be a fourth consecutive term for BJP's Raman Singh. The chief minister has resigned as BJP is destined for a defeat in the Chhattisgarh Assembly elections. Congress is set for a landslide win in the Chhattisgarh elections. Voting happened in two phases to elect a new government in the state. The Chhattisgarh Assembly, which has 90 members, has a current trend which suggests that the Congress will get 68 seats, up 29 from the 2013 elections. BJP, on the other hand will end around the 16 mark, a massive drop of 33 from the last time. The two phases of polling or voting in Chhattisgarh had happened on November 12 and November 20.
Here are the updates of the Chhattisgarh Assembly Election result 2018:
The family of BJP Karyakartas worked day and night for the state elections. I salute them for their hardwork.
- Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) December 11, 2018
Victory and defeat are an integral part of life.
Today's results will further our resolve to serve people and work even harder for the development of India.
Congratulations to the Congress for their victories.
- Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) December 11, 2018
Congratulations to KCR Garu for the thumping win in Telangana and to the Mizo National Front (MNF) for their impressive victory in Mizoram.
We accept the people's mandate with humility.
- Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) December 11, 2018
I thank the people of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan for giving us the opportunity to serve these states. The BJP Governments in these states worked tirelessly for the welfare of the people.
#ResultsWithNDTV | Finance minister Arun Jaitley on BJP's performance in #AssemblyElections2018
- NDTV (@ndtv) December 11, 2018
- Had not anticipated the gap to be so large in Chhattisgarh
- In terms of popular vote we have done very well
- Will do an honest analysis
- No election depends on an individual pic.twitter.com/RGyMRZzxzm
#ResultsWithNDTV | Election trends at 09:47 PM. Click here for detailed election leads+results and analysis https://t.co/0CnuNezNTM #ChhattisgarhElections2018 pic.twitter.com/gKTMQwdPry
- NDTV (@ndtv) December 11, 2018
#ResultsWithNDTV | BJP's Kedar Kashyap loses in Narayanpur #ChhattisgarhElections2018
- NDTV (@ndtv) December 11, 2018
Track live here: https://t.co/qnTdP4n6RS
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Election Results 2018: Rahul Gandhi Says Selection Of Chief Ministers Will Be Done SmoothlyWith Congress set to form governments in Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan and locked in a close fight in Madhya Pradesh, party president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said the selection of chief ministers in the three states will be done "smoothly".
This election was fought in my name so I take moral responsibility for the defeat.
We will form a constructive role in the opposition.
Even if I work all my life I will not be able to repay the love and support I have received from the people of Chhattisgarh.
The party will sit together and find out what we could have done better
.
These elections were not elections for Delhi, those will be held in 2019.
Why will this have an impact on the 2019 polls? We fought these elections on local issues. The 2019 fight will be about who is up against PM Modi.
#ResultsWithNDTV | Election trends at 05:13 PM. Click here for detailed election leads+results and analysis https://t.co/0CnuNezNTM #ChhattisgarhElections2018 pic.twitter.com/egyV5fMoJr
- NDTV (@ndtv) December 11, 2018
The Congress was leading in 66 seats, well above the majority mark of 46, while the ruling BJP was a distant second at 14 in the 90-member assembly, according to the Election Commission website.
"We were not expecting such a big blessing from the people. We were expecting around 60 seats," Mr Baghel told new agency PTI.
The Chhattisgarh Pradesh Congress Committee chief, who is seen as one of the contenders for the chief minister's post along with TS Singhdeo, said it was for the high command to decide who would be chief minister.
"The high command will take a decision on this. The responsibility that was given to me, I have fulfilled that," he said.
"We strengthened the Congress organisation at the basic level under Rahul Gandhi's leadership and through that we fought the battle for the common man," Mr Baghel added.
The party, he asserted, fought for farmers, unemployed youth, women, tribals and traders and won their confidence.
The Congress is set to shatter BJP leader Raman Singh's dream of a consecutive fourth term as Chhattisgarh chief minister.
#ResultsWithNDTV | ANI images of the deserted BJP office in Raipur.
- NDTV (@ndtv) December 11, 2018
BJP, with 17 leads, trails behind Congress, which leads in 66 seats, in #ChhattisgarhElections2018
Track LIVE updates: https://t.co/eFQWRQsEDE #AssemblyElections2018 pic.twitter.com/L17BYHAciB
#ResultsWithNDTV | Congress workers celebrate outside party headquarters in Delhi.
- NDTV (@ndtv) December 11, 2018
Congress leads in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh.#AssemblyElections2018 pic.twitter.com/kPYao96QyP
#ResultsWithNDTV | Election trends at 02:58 PM. Click here for detailed election leads+results and analysis https://t.co/0CnuNezNTM #ChhattisgarhElections2018 pic.twitter.com/yqCaSuSKOM
- NDTV (@ndtv) December 11, 2018
#WATCH: Celebrations outside Congress office in Raipur, Chhattisgarh. Congress is leading on 60 out of 90 seats in the state. #AssemblyElections2018 pic.twitter.com/8Bgf0Wu0Gv
- ANI (@ANI) December 11, 2018
Sanjay Kakade, BJP Rajya Sabha MP: I knew we would lose in Rajasthan & Chhattisgarh but MP trends have come as a surprise. I think we forgot the issue of development that Modi took up in 2014. Ram Mandir, statues & name changing became the focus. #AssemblyElectionResults2018 pic.twitter.com/pHXe4PwhPr
- ANI (@ANI) December 11, 2018
#ResultsWithNDTV | Election trends at 01:56 PM. Click here for detailed election leads+results and analysis https://t.co/0CnuNezNTM #ChhattisgarhElections2018 pic.twitter.com/xfzzwwMwbB
- NDTV (@ndtv) December 11, 2018
Five ministers in the BJP government - Brijmohan Agrawal (Raipur City South), Kedar Kashyap (Narayanpur constituency), Mahesh Gagda (Bijapur), Dayaldas Baghel (Nawagarh) and Amar Agrawal (Bilaspur) - were trailing.
However, state presidents of the BJP and the Congress - Dharamlal Kaushik and Bhupesh Baghel - are leading in Bilha and Patan seats respectively.
#ResultsWithNDTV | Know your candidate - Congress' @TS_SinghDeo, who is the leader of opposition in the state legislative assembly, is being fielded from Ambikapur #ChhattisgarhElections2018
- NDTV (@ndtv) December 11, 2018
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#ResultsWithNDTV | Election trends at 12:39 PM. Click here for detailed election leads+results and analysis https://t.co/0CnuNezNTM #ChhattisgarhElections2018 pic.twitter.com/HMlxa66G28
- NDTV (@ndtv) December 11, 2018
#ResultsWithNDTV | Election trends at 12:24 PM. Click here for detailed election leads+results and analysis https://t.co/0CnuNezNTM #ChhattisgarhElections2018 pic.twitter.com/8ywgbhW25s
- NDTV (@ndtv) December 11, 2018
#ResultsWithNDTV | Congress state president Bhupesh Baghel is leading in Patan #ChhattisgarhElections2018
- NDTV (@ndtv) December 11, 2018
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#ResultsWithNDTV | Election trends at 11:22 AM. Click here for detailed election leads+results and analysis https://t.co/0CnuNezNTM #ChhattisgarhElections2018 pic.twitter.com/mTjY5kMVcN
- NDTV (@ndtv) December 11, 2018
#ResultsWithNDTV | In Rajnandgaon, incumbent Chief Minister @drramansingh now leads, Congress' Karuna Shukla trails #ChhattisgarhElections2018
- NDTV (@ndtv) December 11, 2018
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#ResultsWithNDTV | Election trends at 10:51 AM. Click here for detailed election leads+results and analysis https://t.co/0CnuNezNTM #ChhattisgarhElections2018 pic.twitter.com/GdRfCxSDmN
- NDTV (@ndtv) December 11, 2018
The BJP was taken by surprise when the Congress decided to field former Prime Minister Atal Bihar Vajpayee's niece Karuna Shukla against Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh from the Rajnandgaon constituency in the assembly election.
For the Congress, it wasn't just about fielding a strong candidate from the seat and giving the chief minister a real challenge. It was about staking claim to the legacy of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who died in August.
"BJP has changed its 'chaal, charitra aur chehra' (ways, character and face). It is no more a party envisaged by Atal ji and (Lal Krishna) Advani ji and people of the state know this," Ms Shukla said while campaigning.
Led by Ms Shukla, the Chhattisgarh Congress even went to the extent of marching to the BJP office in Raipur last month demanding that the urn with Mr Vajpayee's ashes be handed over to them. Several such urns had been dispatched to BJP offices across the country as the party organised elaborate immersion rituals to highlight the iconic leader's legacy.
Ms Shukla alleged that ashes sent to Raipur in an urn were not immersed by the state BJP unit. The Congress had also accused the BJP of disrespecting both Hindu tradition and Mr Vajpayee.
Ms Shukla left the BJP in 2014 after spending over 30 years in the party. She occupied several organisational positions in the party and headed the BJP's Mahila Morcha or women's wing. She was elected on a BJP ticket from the Janjgir Lok Sabha seat in 2004 but lost from Korba in 2009. She joined the Congress and contested the 2014 Lok Sabha elections from Bilaspur, losing by 1.76 lakh votes. This wasn't unexpected since the seat is a known BJP bastion which the party hasn't lost since 1996.
Now she is contesting the polls from another BJP stronghold, Rajnandgaon, that too against Chief Minister Raman Singh. Both are invoking the former prime minister's legacy.
"Raman Singh calls me his sister. He claims that he is following the ideology of Atal Bihari Vajpayee. As far as I know this (state) government is miles apart from Atal ji's teachings. It is his (the chief minister's) double standards," Ms Shukla alleged.
Ms Shukla's supporters hope that she will prove to be a giant-killer the same way Dr Singh defeated Congress heavyweight and former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Motilal Vora from the Rajnandgaon Lok Sabha seat in 1999.
Raman Singh is currently leading as votes are being counted today.
Raman Singh is now the longest serving chief minister of the Bharatiya Janata Party, three years more than Prime Minister Narendra Modi's tenure as Gujarat chief minister and two years more than Shivraj Singh Chouhan's years in power in neighbouring Madhya Pradesh.
Raman Singh became associated with the Jan Sangh, the BJP's precursor, in the early 1970s in his birthplace Kawardha, then part of Madhya Pradesh. He became the youth president of the outfit's district unit in 1976. He won his first election in 1983 and became a municipal councilor in Kawardha.
The year 1990 was crucial for the BJP as it came to power in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh, forming state governments on its own for the first time. Raman Singh won his first assembly election from Kawardha, in what was a BJP wave in the state. Even though the party was defeated in the 1993 assembly elections, Dr Singh won again.
In the 1998 assembly elections, however, Dr Singh lost to Congress' Yogeshwar Raj Singh, the young scion of the royal family of Kawardha. In the 1999 Lok Sabha elections, he was given the daunting task of contesting against Congress veteran and former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Motilal Vora from the Rajnandgaon Lok Sabha seat. Dr Singh won the seat by a little over 22,000 votes and came to be seen as a giant-killer. An impressed Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, himself from Madhya Pradesh, made Raman Singh the minister of state for commerce and industry.
His victory over Mr Vora went in his favour when the BJP was looking for a chief minister in 2003 after the controversy surrounding Dilip Singh Judeo.
In a state where Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled Caste together constitute over 50 per cent of the population, Dr Singh, a Thakur, has been unexpectedly successful. He is said to have succeeded in maintaining his popularity through welfare schemes and astute political management. He is also credited with overhauling the public distribution system in the state and bringing the Chhattisgarh Food Security Act, 2012, one of the first food security laws in the country.
His rule hasn't been without controversies, with the opposition Congress alleging a Rs. 36,000 crore scam in the state's public distribution system and cornering the chief minister on his son's name allegedly figuring in the Panama Papers. His reign has also seen a number of attacks by Maoists on security forces and civilians, the most prominent one being the massacre at the Darbha valley on May 25, 2013 in which 27 people including Congress leaders Nandkumar Patel, Vidyacharan Shukla, Mahendra Karma and Uday Mudliyar were killed.
Seeking a fourth term in office and a third term from the Rajnandgaon assembly seat, Dr Singh is in a curious position. His one-time rival in state politics, former chief minister Ajit Jogi, is unwittingly helping his prospects through his new party Janata Congress Chhattisgarh. The party is seen as a threat to the Congress and could eat into its votes in a number of seats. On the other hand, his "mentor" Atal Bihari Vajpayee's niece Karuna Shukla is contesting against him in Rajnandgaon.
If he wins another term, Dr Singh will become the sixth chief minister in India to win four consecutive terms and the first one in a Hindi-speaking state to achieve this feat.
#ResultsWithNDTV | Raman Singh currently trails behind Congress' Karuna Shukla in Rajnandgaon #ChhattisgarhElections2018
- NDTV (@ndtv) December 11, 2018
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#ResultsWithNDTV | Overview of #AssemblyElections2018 trends at 10 am
- NDTV (@ndtv) December 11, 2018
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#ResultsWithNDTV | Election trends at 10:05 AM. Click here for detailed election leads+results and analysis https://t.co/0CnuNezNTM #ChhattisgarhElections2018 pic.twitter.com/Lsrbp1kQBu
- NDTV (@ndtv) December 11, 2018
Raman Singh is the longest-serving chief minister of the BJP, three years more than Prime Minister Narendra Modi's tenure as Gujarat chief minister and two years more than Shivraj Singh Chouhan's years in power in neighbouring Madhya Pradesh.
In 2013, Raman Singh won from the same seat by a margin of 36,000 votes.
The alliance of Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and former chief minister Ajit Jogi's Janata appeared to make little impact on the Congress's votes.
Mayawati's move to tie-up with Ajit Jogi -- a Congress rebel -- was widely predicted to hurt the Congress more than the BJP.
Several exit polls had predicted a neck-and-neck fight between the big two and some projected victory for the Rahul Gandhi-led party.
The BJP is seeking a fourth straight term in office; the Congress is aiming to return after 15 years out of power in the largely tribal state.
In the 2013 elections, the BJP won 49 seats, the Congress 39, while one seat each was bagged by the BSP and an Independent.
#ResultsWithNDTV | Election trends at 09:46 AM. Click here for detailed election results and analysis https://t.co/0CnuNezNTM #ChhattisgarhElections2018 pic.twitter.com/MiugH755Ot
- NDTV (@ndtv) December 11, 2018
#ResultsWithNDTV | Early trends show @drramansingh, who has had 3 consecutive terms as Chhattisgarh Chief Minister, trailing in Rajnandgaon #ChhattisgarhElections2018
- NDTV (@ndtv) December 11, 2018
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#ResultsWithNDTV | Election trends at 09:30 AM. Click here for detailed election results and analysis https://t.co/0CnuNezNTM #ChhattisgarhElections2018 pic.twitter.com/e4xKpEPyGc
- NDTV (@ndtv) December 11, 2018
Just In: BJP is leading in Chhattisgarh, but chief minister Raman Singh is trailing.
#ResultsWithNDTV | Election trends at 08:57 AM. Click here for detailed election results and analysis https://t.co/0CnuNezNTM #ChhattisgarhElections2018 pic.twitter.com/SMfKnRQWEy
- NDTV (@ndtv) December 11, 2018
Warming up at the Congress Headquarters @Raipur #ResultsWithNDTV pic.twitter.com/cQLZUQPba4
- Alok Pandey (@alok_pandey) December 11, 2018
#ResultsWithNDTV | Election results at 08:31 AM. Click here for detailed election results and analysis https://t.co/0CnuNezNTM pic.twitter.com/MfbMPanFQO
- NDTV (@ndtv) December 11, 2018
#ResultsWithNDTV | Early trends show BJP's Vikram Usendi leading in Antagarh #ChhattisgarhElections2018
- NDTV (@ndtv) December 11, 2018
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Just In: Counting of votes begin in Chhattisgarh, four other states. Leads shortly, final result by the evening.
Questioned on this eventuality, Ajit Jogi, in a conversation with NDTV's Prannoy Roy said, "In politics you can't rule out anything. So anything can happen". He had however denied to chose a preference between the BJP or the Congress.
#ResultsWithNDTV | Prannoy Roy explains exactly why #AssemblyElections2018 are important.
- NDTV (@ndtv) December 11, 2018
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#ResultsWithNDTV | Watch LIVE now: In-depth coverage of #AssemblyElections2018 with Prannoy Roy https://t.co/hMlRpgak2y and NDTV 24x7 pic.twitter.com/jGigGW7VUZ
- NDTV (@ndtv) December 11, 2018
