Exactly a year after Rahul Gandhi took over as Indian National Congress president, the grand old party that was facing an existential crisis in politics pulled off a stellar performance in the assembly elections of five states, results of which were announced on December 11.
Recently concluded assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Mizoram and Telangana were a litmus test of PM Narendra Modi and Rahul Gandhi’s popularity ahead of 2019 Lok Sabha polls. While Congress scooped two BJP-ruled states- Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, the party is inching closer to clinch a majority in MP where incumbent CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan has been in power for three consecutive terms. In Mizoram and Telangana both the national parties failed to impress the voters as the majority voted for indigenous parties- Mizo National Front ( MNF) and Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) respectively. Overall, the assembly elections didn’t turn out to be as BJP would have expected given the amount of weight the party had put during its campaigns that involved several union ministers. Rajya Sabha BJP MP Sanjay Kakade claimed that he expected the party to lose because they ditched development for Ram Mandir.
“I think it’s because we forgot the issue of development that Prime Minister Narendra Modi took up in 2014, and turned our focus to statues, name-changing and the Ram temple,” he said.
Several opposition leaders came out to appreciate Congress’ performance. Further on the sidelines of today’s results and with only a few months left for the Lok Sabha polls, opposition leaders came under one roof to discuss the 2019 elections strategy. The meeting was called by Andhra Pradesh CM Chandrababu Naidu.
Here’s What Happened In 5-Poll Bound States
Mizoram
Led by year-old Zoramthanga, champion of the Mizo nationalism in the state, MNF bagged 26 seats in the 40-member state assembly. Congress’ Lal Thanhawla who has been ruling the state since 2008 lost both the seats he contested from-Champhai South and Serchhip. Later in the evening on December 11, Thanhawla submitted his resignation.
“A delegation of Mizo National Front (MNF) led by its President Zoramthanga met Governor Kummanam Rajasekharan after the party won 26 seats in the state Assembly polls,” reported ANI.
With the recent victory, MNF is slated to grab the power after 10 years of political bewilderment. MNF’s victory has snatched Congress’ last citadel in the northeast.
Contesting elections on two major planks- development and Mizo nationalism, MNF’s decision to not have a pre-poll alliance with BJP in the Christian-majority has worked out in its favour. MNF is part of BJP-backed North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA) at the centre. MNF election plan was Mizo nationalism.
Mizoram elections have always been a fight between Congress and MNF.
Chhattisgarh
Chhattisgarh CM Raman Singh took the responsibility of BJP’s disappointing performance in the state assembly election and resigned from his post on Tuesday evening. In Chhattisgarh, while Congress bagged 64 seats in the 90-seat assembly, BJP was distant second as it could only keep its hold on only 18 seats.
“I have submitted my resignation to Chhattisgarh Governor. The election was solely contested on state agenda, and it is not related to Delhi. We will sit with the party workers and analyse the defeat in detail,” Singh said in his statement to the media after losing the state. BJP has been in power in the state for 15 years.
The state has always witnessed a close fight between two national parties- BJP and Congress. In 2013, the vote difference was only 0.5% points, with 40.5% Congress and 41% BJP. However, this time Congress’ tally was 10% points more than BJP and the party registered a comfortable victory. While many were hoping that Congress rebel candidate Ajit Jogi will work in favour of BJP, it worked another way around. The vote polarisation between Satnami and OBC hurt BJP more than Congress in the rice bowl of the country.
Rajasthan
The BJP-ruled state, which has been under the radar due to cow vigilantism cases, saw a close fight between BJP and Congress, with the latter managing to replace BJP in the state by winning 101 seats in the 199-seat assembly.
It is believed that the loss of BJP’s Meena vote bank, state’s ‘revolving door’ (different parties winning alternate elections), and electioneering by party’s star leaders Sachin Pilot and Ashok Gehlot has helped the party to snatch the state from BJP’s kitty. Further, agrarian distress coupled with high-profile exits before the elections, including its founder-member Jaswant Singh’s son Manvendra Singh acted as nails in the coffin. BJP’s votes have fallen from 45.2 per cent in 2013 to 38.8 per cent in 2018. BJP’s recent loss was in line with parties dismal performance in by-polls conducted a few months ago.
The Congress will hold its legislature party meeting on Wednesday to decide on who will be the chief minister. So far, the party has done best to project ‘harmony’ between two CM contenders – Gehlot and Pilot. “The Congress Legislature Party meeting will take place tomorrow. AICC general secretary K C Venugopal has arrived for the meeting,” state Congress chief Sachin Pilot said.
Madhya Pradesh
BJP was battling three-term anti-incumbency in the state. The state has been on the boil due to the agrarian crisis. Several farmers came to Delhi to register their protest against the state government and Centre during Kisan Mukti March held on November 30. The contest in the state was never easy for BJP this time around, but the party managed to give a tough fight to the Congress. With Congress only two seats short of the majority mark of 116 and BJP left to arrange eight seats to claim power, the state’s election was a see-saw contest.
Both the parties are now reaching out to smaller parties to claim a majority and form the government. BJP has done well as an incumbent party to keep the fight still on. In the case of the hung assembly, governor Anandiben Patel would play a critical role in deciding who forms a government in the state.
However, Congress displayed an impressive performance by improving its vote share in this election. While the party captured 36.4% in 2013, it managed to shoot up the figure to 41.4% this time. BJP has come down from 44.9% to 41.3%.
Telangana
In Telangana, TRS President and Telangana CM K Chandrashekar Rao’s gamble to call for early elections finally paid off. KCR managed to crush Congress’ alliance and keep BJP out of the scene and returned as state’s CM. TRS registered a comfortable victory by bagging 88 seats in 119-member state assembly. Congress, which tied up with its long rival Chandrababu Naidu, was a distant second with only 21 seats. BJP could manage only one seat in the state.
Further, KCR managed to defend his record of not losing an election since 1995. This time too he was re-elected from the Gajwel Assembly constituency with a huge margin.