Assembly election results 2023: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is set to sweep all the three Hindi heartland states of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Chhattisgarh as the saffron party’s lead crossed the majority mark in late afternoon trends.

In Madhya Pradesh, the BJP was leading in 161 seats and won one, while the Congress party was ahead in just 66 seats, according to the official Election Commission data. The BSP and the Bharat Adivasi Party were leading on one seat each.

In Rajasthan, the BJP won 8 seats and was ahead in 106 constituencies, while the Congress won one and led on 69 more seats. Independents and regional parties were leading in 12 constituencies, the EC data showed.

Several Congress bigwigs, including incumbent assembly speaker CP Joshi in Nathdwara, Dr Rajkumar Sharma in Nawalgarh, and minister Pratap Singh Khachariyawas, were trailing in their respective constituencies.

Jyoti Mirdha and Rajendra Rathore were among the prominent faces of the BJP who were trailing in Nagaur and Taranagar constituencies, respectively.

The biggest surprise came in Chhattisgarh as the BJP took a decisive lead against the Congress. As per the EC data, the BJP was ahead in 54 seats, while the Congress was leading in 33 seats.

The GGP, BSP, and CPI were leading on one seat each. Several incumbent ministers were trailing in Chhattisgarh as BJP shocked pollsters, who predicted a Congress victory in the tribal state.

The only consolation for the Congress party was the south Indian state of Telangana, where it managed to end K Chandrashekhar Rao’s decade-long reign.

As per the latest data, Congress won 2 and was leading in 62 more, while KCR’s Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) was ahead in 39 constituencies. BRS has won one seat in Telangana.

The BJP performed well beyond expectations in Telangana as well and was likely to win eight seats. The saffron party had won just one seat in 2018 elections.

Telangana Chief Minister KCR was trailing in Kamareddy by more than 3,000 votes against state Congress president Revanth Reddy. He, however, was leading in Gajwal. KCR is contesting from two constituencies.