By Sundeep Pouranik

Bhopal, Dec 4 (IANS): As assembly elections are scheduled to be held in Madhya Pradesh in less than a year, the possibility of small parties emerging as a big challenge for the BJP and the Congress has increased.

All the political parties, including the BJP and the Congress, have already begun preparations for the polls. Both the parties are eying the votes which can be grabbed the small parties.

The Samajwadi Party, Gondwana Ganatantra Party (GGP), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Communist Party have been influential in the state.

In the 2003 elections, in the House of 230 MLAs, 18 MLAs had won from small parties. This number has been fluctuating as 13 MLAs from smaller parties won in 2008, four in 2013 and only three in 2018.

Learning a lesson from the 2018 assembly elections, both the BJP and the Congress are now dotting every i's and crossing every t's to get absolute majority in the upcoming polls, this is because the Congress had formed the government but it had not got the majority.

In 2018, the Congress won 114 seats and the BJP won 109 seats in the 230-member assembly. The BJP returned to power in the state after a year and a quarter due to defection.

Political analyst Arvind Mishra believes that the possibility of the upcoming election being full of dilemma cannot be denied, with factionalism increasing in the saffron party and the Congress putting in efforts to get united.

However, the smaller parties can majorly affect the electoral math.

In the state's recent urban body elections, it became apparent that small parties are now ready to play their role in the elections with Owaisi's AIMIM winning the councillor seats at many places.

AAP's candidate won the post of Mayor in Singrauli.

It is clear that apart from AAP, AIMIM; BSP, Samajwadi Party (SP) and tribal youth organisation JAIS can play a big role in the upcoming elections.