The BJP has won Madhya Pradesh’s Khargone seat, which suffered communal riots in 2022. The seat has been won by BJP’s Balkrishna Patidar defeating the sitting Congress MLA Ravi Joshi by over thirteen thousand votes.
Khargone saw communal riots in April 2022, when a Ram Navami procession was passing by the central mosque in the city, the Jama Masjid. The procession, which was taking place during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, had reportedly been triggered after it was stopped by the police from entering Talab Chowk, a Muslim-dominated locality. This eventually led to stone pelting, injuries, and shops and houses being burnt. In the aftermath of the violence, the Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led BJP government decided to “punish” the alleged rioters by bulldozing their homes. “The houses of those pelting stones will be turned into a pile of stones,” MP Home Minister Narottam Mishra had said, following which at least 50 properties were bulldozed, and over 150 people arrested.