The BJP has won 24 of the 47 Scheduled Tribe (ST) reserved seats in Madhya Pradesh while the Congress has won 22 seats. Meanwhile, the Bhartiya Adivasi Party has won one tribal seat.
Tribal groups account for 21 per cent of Madhya Pradesh’s population, thus making them an influential voter-base. In the 2018 assembly elections, of the 47 reserved ST seats, the BJP had managed to win 16 seats, a significant drop from the 31 ST seats the party had won in 2013. Congress, on the other hand, had doubled its tally from 15 ST seats in 2013 to 30 ST seats in 2018.
The BJP has clearly managed to regain its popularity to some extent in the tribal areas, while the Congress has lost favor there, in comparison to 2018.