BSP chief Mayawati extends support, takes Congress past magic number in Madhya Pradesh

New Delhi, Dec 12: BSP chief Mayawati on Wednesday extended the support to Congress in Madhya Pradesh, "despite misgivings" to let the party past the magic number in the Madhya Pradesh.

Of the 230 seats in the state, the Congress had won 114, while the BJP has 109. The half-way mark or the magic number required to form government is 116. With Mayawati which has two seats supporting the Congress, the grand old party past the majority mark of 116 in the 230-seat Assembly.

Besides this, the Congress also faces the tough task of keeping its house in order and prevent its MLAs from deserting it and joining the BJP.

"BSP has done well in the elections in all states except Chhattisgarh and I want to congratulate them all," said Mayawati. She called or the beginning of "the anti-BJP movement in india," adding that the people have voted for the Congress only to oust BJP.

Playing down on Congress' victory , the BSP chief added that the genesis of her party was based on the stark ignorance of the Dalit voices in the collective political narratives of both BJP and Congress. " We want to defeat BJP at any cost, and thus, even though we dont agree with Congress on many fronts, BSP will extend its in MP and in Rajasthan too if required."

The 24-hour-long thriller ended after the last seat went to the Congress taking the final number of the party to 114 seats in the 230 seat-assembly of Madhya Pradesh. While assembly elections result for Rajasthan, Telangana, Mizoram and Chhattisgarh were clear by late Tuesday evening, in Madhya Pradesh, the story was totally different. The BJP managed to get 109 seats, the BSP 2 seats, SP one seat and Independents 4 seats. Wary of Goa situation, the Congress had already sent a letter to Governor Anandiben Patel to stake the claim.

The Assembly polls held for five states also saw the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) recording a landslide win for a second consecutive term and the Mizo National Front (MNF) scripting a spectacular victory dislodging the Congress in its last bastion in the Northeast to return to power after 10 years.

The election was held in Madhya Pradesh on November 28 and 75% of the state's 5.03 crore voters exercised their franchise, with around 1.64 lakh people having voted on an average in each constituency.

In 2013 polls, BJP had won 165 seats while Congress and BSP got 58 and 4. Three independent MLAs also won the polls.