Thaindian News

Bhopal, Dec 8 (IANS) Madhya Pradesh assembly election results Monday sprang a surprise with many stalwarts of both the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress being trounced at the hustings. Prominent among the BJP losers are Himmat Kothari and Kusum Mehdele, both ministers in the outgoing government and Kailash Chawla.

For the Congress, the defeat of many of its stalwarts was stunning. The state heads of all its frontal organisations, like Jitu Patwari of Youth Congress, Shobha Ojha of Mahila Congress and Rashmi Pawar of National Students Union of India (NSUI), lost.

More shocking was the defeat of Subhash Yadav, who was the state Congress president till a few months ago. He was also a deputy chief minister in the Digvijay Singh government. Deputy Speaker of the state assembly Hazarilal Raghuvanshi of the Congress also lost.

The prominent winners from the Congress are Ajay Singh, son of Human Resources Development Minister Arjun Singh, Congress spokesman Arvind Bhadauria and former minister Arif Aqueel.

Prominent BJP winners are Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Public Works Department Minister Kailash Vijayvargiya, Public Health Engineering Minister Chaudhary Chandrabhan Singh, Education Minister Narottam Mishra, Minister of State for Fisheries Moti Kashyap, Forest Minister Vijay Shah and former health minister Ajay Vishnoi.

Similarly, Irrigation Minister Anup Mishra, nephew of former prime minister Atal Vihari Vajpayee, also won.

Former health minister Ajay Vishnoi, who had to resign following income tax raids on the premises of his relatives, also scraped through. He was accused of being involved in the state’s biggest ever medical scam under which medicines meant for hospital supply were purchased at a price much higher than the market rate.