Will the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) come back to power in the state or has an anti-incumbency factor worked in favour of the Congress in Madhya Pradesh? The fate of the candidates has been sealed and will be unveiled when the counting of votes takes place on December 11. Shivraj Singh Chouhan has left no stone unturned to become the Chief Minister of the state for the fourth time. However, Congress has also repeatedly hit out at the ruling government alleging various controversies and scandals to urge voters to look beyond the BJP.

Exit Polls have predicted that the Congress may emerge as the single largest party in Madhya Pradesh while the BJP is likely to be a close second.

CNX Exit poll gives Madhya Pradesh to BJP: As per the CNX Exit poll, the BJP has got 126  seats, Congress has bagged 89, BSP 6 and others 9.

According to Axis poll, Congress will win 113 seats, BJP 111, others 6.

As per C-Voter poll, Congress will win 110-126 seats while BJP will bag 90-106 seats.

Lokniti-CSDS has given a lead to the Congress with 126 seats for the grand old party, 94 for BJP and 10 to others.

Jan Ki Baat has also predicted a hung assembly with 118 seats going to the BJP, 105 to the Congress and 7 to others.

In the 2013 elections, BJP won 165 seats while Congress had 58 seats in the 240-member Assembly. The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) won four seats while the Independents secured three. At the time, BJP had a vote share of 44.88 per cent while it was 36.38 per cent for the Congress.

The importance that the state holds for both the parties can be judged by the fact that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP chief Amit Shah and UP CM Yogi Adityanath led the party's campaign while the Congress campaign was led by party chief Rahul Gandhi. Several political analysts are of the view that the assembly elections are likely to reflect the mood of the voters ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.