On Friday, votes were cast for 230 assembly seats in Madhya Pradesh and 70 out of 90 assembly seats in Chhattisgarh. In MP, voting ended at 6 p.m., however in Chhattisgarh, it ended at 5 p.m.

The second and last round of voting took place in Chhattisgarh on Friday. In all, 958 people are fighting for 70 seats, including T S Singh Deo, the deputy chief minister, Bhupesh Baghel, eight state ministers, and four members of parliament.

In the meanwhile, 2,533 candidates are running in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections, with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the opposition Congress engaged in a major power struggle. There are 5,60,60,925 people who can exercise their right to vote.

Madhya Pradesh registered a voter turnout of 71.64 per cent as of 7:30 pm on Friday. Meanwhile, Chhatisgarh reported 68.15 per cent voter turnout.

The district of Dhamtari had the greatest voter participation, at 79.89%, while the district of Raipur had the lowest turnout, according to data made public by the Election Commission of India on the Voter participation App.

Meanwhile, ANI news agency reported that an improvised explosive device (IED) attack in Gariaband carried out by Naxalites claimed the life of a jawan of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP).

Up to 5 p.m., Madhya Pradesh registered 71.11 percent of voters, while Chhattisgarh recorded 67.34 percent. While voting in MP will end at 6 p.m., it concluded at 5 p.m. in Chhattisgarh.

The seasoned leaders of the BJP and Congress in 2018—Kamal Nath and Shivraj Singh Chouhan—are vying for the position of chief minister. 2018 voters who had had enough of the Chouhan rule were let down by the Congress government led by Kamal Nath, which was almost identical to the previous one. Unsurprisingly, this time around, voter aspirations are modest.

The choice is obviously ironic if one believes that a change in administration signifies youth and freshness. Having served as chief minister for eighteen years, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, 65, is the face of the status quo. Kamal Nath, his opponent, is the embodiment of transformation and is 12 years older at 77.

For fifteen months, the state was controlled by the Congress chief minister, and during that brief tenure, there was little difference between the lengthy BJP reign that came before and after the Congress one. In other words, the voter is given a Hobson's option.

When you inquired about the outcome of the 2023 Assembly elections two weeks ago, the common response from people in Chhattisgarh would have been that the Congress party will easily win.

Some may have even expected the grand old party to win up to 65 seats (out of 90) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to win up to 24 seats. However, in politics, two weeks is a long time.

It appears that the BJP is now challenging the Congress for every vote. The majority of political analysts who watched the Chhattisgarh votes evidently failed to notice the reasons.

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