The BJP needs to win only eight seats in the Madhya Pradesh by-polls to safeguard the Shivraj Singh Chouhan's government, and the saffron party is already leading in more than double the number as counting of votes is underway on Tuesday
The BJP is leading in 17 seats while the Congress is ahead in 9, according to the trends released by the Election Commission. The Bahujan Samaj Party is leading in one after 3 hours of counting.
The trend of 27 out of 28 assembly seats has appeared, so far.
The by-elections in 25 of the 28 seats in the 230-member Assembly took place on November 3 and were necessitated due to the resignations of Congress MLAs who later joined the BJP thus bringing down the Kamal Nath government and forming the one led by Shivraj Singh Chouhan.
The turncoats are in the fray as BJP candidates in 25 seats. In the remaining three segments, by-polls were necessitated due to the demise of the sitting legislators.
At present, in the 201-seat Assembly, the BJP has 107 seats, Congress 87, Independents four, two BSP, and one Samajwadi Party. So, while the BJP needs to win only eight more seats, the Congress will still be short by one MLA in case it wins all 28 seats for which by-polls were held.