MP bypolls: Digvijaya Singh says 'Notetantra won' as BJP touted to win 21 of 28 seats

As BJP leads in 21 seats in Madhya Pradesh by-polls, senior Congress Digvijaya Singh, on Tuesday, said that 'Notetantra has won, democracy has lost'. Repeating claims of EVM tampering, he said there were several seats in which the Congress should not have lost, but did lose by 1000s of votes.  The State assembly's 28 seats went to polls on November 3, with a 70.27% voter turnout, with results being declared today.

Congress' Digvijaya Singh admits telling SP's Roshan Mirza to withdraw from MP bypolls

Digvijaya: 'Notetantra won'

"Democracy (Loktantra) has lost, Notetantra has won. EVMs are not tamper-proof, and selective tampering is done. There are seats that we would have not lost in any circumstance but we did by thousands of votes. We'll hold a meeting tomorrow & analyse the results," he said.

Responding to Digvijaya's claims, Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Chouhan said, " Last time when his (Digvijaya Singh) party won 114 seats in the elections, then there was no issue in EVM? He never accepts the truth. He can only make excuses for the defeat of his party".

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Digvijaya Singh admits to coersion

On 29 October, an audiotape of an alleged conversation between Congress leader Digvijaya Singh and Samajwadi Party (SP) candidate from Gwalior Roshan Mirza surfaced in which Singh asks the SP candidate to withdraw his nomination from the upcoming by-poll. Mirza has also come out in open and claimed that it was Digvijaya Singh who called him and also alleged that a Congress leader named Aslam offered him Rs 10 lakh to withdrawn his candidature.  Digvijaya Singh said that it was his responsibility to stop a Congress worker from filing a 'non-party form'. He said that Mirza had some issues and wished to contest in the upcoming bypolls, which was not agreed by Congress.

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Madhya Pradesh crisis & bypolls

The crisis in the Kamal Nath government started when Congress alleged BJP of poaching 4 MLAs - two of which returned to Kamal Nath's folds. Soon, 22 MLAs including 6 cabinet ministers - loyal to Jyotiraditya Scindia - quit the party, reducing the Congress to a minority government with 92 MLAs. Following this, Scindia resigned from Congress and then joined the BJP. After Nath stepped down as CM and the Madhya Pradesh Speaker accepted all 22 MLAs' resignation, all of them promptly joined BJP. Several more Congress MLAs have joined BJP since then - vacating 28 seats in the Assembly.

Scindia's rebellion paid off with 12 rebel MLAs being given cabinet portfolios in July's cabinet expansion. Apart from these 12, two rebel MLAs -Tulsi Silawat and Govind Singh Rajput had already been sworn in shortly after CM Shivraj Chouhan took oath, while Scindia himself has been elected to the Rajya Sabha. In the bypolls, all 14 ministers were in the poll fray. To remain in power with a majority on its own, BJP requires to win 9 seats in the bypolls.

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