The BJP is set to form a government in Madhya Pradesh for the fifth time with the party winning 137 seats and leading in 28 so far, decimating the Congress in the keenly-fought contest.

The saffron party has comfortably crossed the halfway mark (115) even as the counting of votes is still underway.

As per the official tally, the Congress has won 44 seats and leading in 20 out of the total of 230 constituencies.

In the 2018 assembly elections, the Congress won 114 seats to form a government, while the BJP was restricted to 109.

The Bharatiya Janata Party won the assembly elections in 2003 under Uma Bharti. The party scored victories in subsequent contests in 2008 and 2013 but lost to Congress in 2018. The BJP remained out of power from December 2018 to March 2020 when Congress leader Kamal Nath became chief minister.

However, the saffron party returned to power in March 2020 under Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who became the chief minister for the first time in 2005. He went on to become the longest-serving chief minister in the state.

Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Telegraph Online staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.