BJP posted big wins to retain the Shahdol Parliament seat and the Nepanagar Assembly seats.
Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has credited Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his policies at the centre for his party the
BJP's victory in by-elections in the state today.
The BJP posted big wins to retain the Shahdol Parliament seat and the Nepanagar Assembly seats, both of which fell vacant as the sitting BJP lawmakers had died.
" I want to congratulate the PM and his policies. I have seen how people support us... It shows that the government is working in the right direction," said Mr Chouhan, who presides over a huge majority in the Madhya Pradesh assembly and whose party won 27 of the state's 29 Lok Sabha seats in 2014.
The by-elections to four Parliament and 10 assembly seats in six states were the first polls since
Prime Minister Modi's sudden announcement earlier this month abolishing 500 and 1000 rupee notes in an attempt to eliminate corruption and black or untaxed money.
Senior union minister Ananth Kumar of the BJP today said the party's win in the by-elections in Madhya Pradesh and in Assam, another state that the party rules, signals the people's support for the notes ban, which has been denounced by a united opposition led by the Congress for causing hardship to the poor amid a cash crunch.
The BJP, whose parliamentarians passed a resolution today supporting the PM's "daring initiative," has said it is confident that those waiting in long lines at banks and ATMs for rationed new currency, are "queuing for a new India."
The Congress, the BJP's chief opponent in Madhya Pardesh, had based its campaign in the last few days for the by-elections on the impact of the demonetisation. It pointed out that the BJP's winning margin in both seats has substantially reduced and alleged that it was because the notes ban has negatively impacted the people.
"Not true," said Gyan Singh who is the new Lok Sabha MP from Shahdol. He attributed the narrower margin of win on farmeres and women working in fields being unable to free themselves from work to vote.