2018 Madhya Pradesh Assembly Election Nov 28,2018 - 82 reserved seats hold key to securing power

As campaigning heats up in Madhya Pradesh, which goes to polls on November 28,2018 the two main parties in the fray—the Bharatiya Janta Party and Congress—have pulled out all stops to win over the scheduled caste and tribe voters.

The reason: central to gaining power in the state is 82 reserved seats, 47 for scheduled tribes and 35 for scheduled castes, out of the total 230.

This includes tribal-dominated regions such as Shahdol, Dindori, Mandla, Alirajpur and Jhabua, and scheduled caste-dominated areas include Bhind, Morena, Tikamgarh, Rewa, and Raisen among others.

As per the 2011 census, scheduled castes constitute 15.6% and scheduled tribes 21.1 % of the state’s 7.26 crore population.

In the 2013 assembly elections, BJP won 59 of these seats—31 ST and 28 SC reserved seats, while Congress won 15 and four respectively.