MP Elections: Congress' Satish Sikarwar confident of victory in tough contest in Gwalior East

Gwalior (Madhya Pradesh) [India], November 17 (ANI): The Congress party's candidate from Gwalior , Satish Sikarwar, on Friday exuded confidence of party's win in the state assembly elections.
Launching an attack on the ruling BJP, Sikarwar said, "Corruption, unemployment, inflation, and atrocities against women are among several issues in the state. The common man is not able to have two square meals a day. So people will definitely vote to remove the BJP and bring Congress into the state".
Satish Sikarwar is the Congress candidate from the Gwalior East Assembly constituency. He lost to Munalal Goyal in the 2018 assembly elections when he was fighting against him on a BJP ticket and the latter was fighting on a Congress ticket.
In a turn of events, the contenders swapped parties ahead of the 2020 by poll elections.
In the 2023 State Assembly elections, Satish Sikarwar has locked horns with BJP's Maya Singh who is related to Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, for the Gwalior East Assembly constituency. Maya Singh had won this seat in 2013. With the BSP also strong in this seat it is a tough fight for Sikarwar.
During his campaign Satish Sikarwar had express confidence that the Congress would sweep the Chambal region with at least 28 seats. The Chambal region is seen as the stronghold of Scindia.
Polling to all 230 seats in Madhya Pradesh is underway. A large number of voters turned out to cast their votes. The voters can cast their ballots until 6 p.m., except in the Baihar, Lanji, and Parswara assembly seats of Balaghat district and some booths in Mandla and Dindori districts, where voting will be held until 3 p.m.
Madhya Pradesh recorded a voter turnout of 11.19 percent, till 9:30 am on Friday according to data shared by the Election Commission.
BJP is seeking to retain power in the state where it has ruled for almost 18 of the past 20 years and Congress is keen to oust the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government.
The election will decide the electoral fate of over 2,500 candidates. Nearly 5.59 crore voters are eligible to exercise their franchise. It includes 2.87 crore male and 2.71 crore women voters.
There are over 5,000 booths run by women and 183 polling stations run by the disabled, officials said. The polls, coming nearly six months ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, are crucial for both the BJP and Congress for various reasons. The counting of votes for the five states including will be done on December 3. (ANI)