It’s anyone’s game in Madhya Pradesh now as at least 26 seats are going down to the wire with a margin of less than 500 votes between the Congress and BJP candidates. If the Congress sees off the last-minute scare, it will a trifecta of wins in the heartland of India, having already comfortably bagged Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. With the sudden slump in electoral fortunes of the BJP, 2019 is no longer a walkover for Narendra Modi and Amit Shah. The result is a fresh lease of life for the Congress which now has a stronger claim to leadership in the proposed grand alliance of non-BJP parties in 2019 Lok Sabha elections. In Telangana, however, the party’s alliance with Chandrababu Naidu’s TDP has failed to dent K Chandrashekar Rao’s Telangana Rashtra Samiti which is zooming towards a thumping return to power. It’s a vindication for KCR who had called snap polls to capitalise on interim popularity. In Mizoram, the ruling Congress has lost out to Mizo National Front with CM Lal Thanhawla trailing.

Speaking to reporters outside Parliament before the start of Winter Session, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he hoped for smooth proceedings and appealed to opposition parties to cooperate. He, however, kept mum on the BJP’s poor performance in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. Among the big players in fray, Rajasthan CM Vasundhara Raje and Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan are leading in Jhalrapatan and Budhni seats, respectively. Congress candidate and Jaswant Singh’s son Manvendra Singh is trailing against Raje in Jhalrapatan. Chhattisgarh CM Raman Singh is also trailing against Congress candidate Karuna Shukla, who is Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s niece.