Vindhya rout under ‘forensic’ lens

BHOPAL: Despite winning the assembly elections, Congress has concerns — especially its shock defeat in Vindhyachal, where it hoped for big gains.
Chief minister-designate Kamal Nath, who will take oath of office on Monday, isn’t sure what went wrong and is losing no time in getting the answers. “I still think that in Vindhya, the results are not commensurate with what voters are saying. I have initiated a forensic study of the voting in Vindhya, much like an exit poll,” he told TOI in an interview, adding: “Even this morning, people came to me from villages in this region and claimed they had voted for Congress but during counting, the EVMs said differently.Don’t forget, it was in Satna that the maximum EVM malfunctions were reported on the day of voting and polling was stopped for three hours. The results do not match the voting pattern in the remaining areas of the state. An independent professional agency will go to at least 40% of the villages and ask people who they voted for. Let them say if they rejected the Congress candidate or if it was our caste equations that went wrong.”
While in every other region and division of the state, Congress upped its seats, it faced a rout in Rewa, Satna, Sidhi, Singrauli and Annuppur districts. Out of the total 30 seats here, the party got just six when it expected no less than a sweep.
In 2013, Congress had won 12 seats here. But this time, it suffered a severe setback, which left it two short of majority. Two Congress stalwarts faced shock defeats — Leader of Opposition Ajay Singh in Churhat, his home turf, and former minister Rajendra Singh in Amarpatan. If Congress had retained all its seats, or even these two, it would have a lot more swagger in the assembly. In fact, it was the Vindhya hope that had led the party to expect 140 seats, but it lost four out of every five seats in the region.
Asked if Congress would move court if the ‘forensic’ study detects any irregularities, Nath said: “I will decide once I get the report.”