Madhya Pradesh elections: A gap of 36,000 votes between Congress, BJP

Bhopal, Dec 12: It has been a nerve wrecking exercise in Madhya Pradesh. Counting has been on for over 21 hours and as things stand now, the Congress has 115 and the BJP, 108.

The equations continued to change with every round of counting. By 5.30 am, both parties had almost an identical vote share at around 41 per cent. The difference of votes polled by the parties was just 36,422 across the 230 constituencies.

The magic number in MP is 116. With neither the BJP and Congress able to touch the half way mark, it would be the independents who would have the final say in the formation of the government. The Congress which needs one more seat to form the government has already reached out to the BSP, which had earlier said that it would try and stop the BJP from forming the government.

Rahul Gandhi too sent out a message and said that the ideology of the BSP, SP and Congress are the same and different from the BJP.

The Congress on the other hand wrote to the Governor of Madhya Pradesh, staking a claim to forming the government. The Governor has however asked the Congress to wait for the official announcement by the Election Commission of India.