Congress unwilling to advance Lok Sabha poll date; Terror, inflation campaign did not work, admits BJP.
The Assembly elections in the five states, dubbed the semi-finals for next year’s Lok Sabha elections, today presented a mixed bag of results for the two main political parties—the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Though the Congress retained Delhi and is set to form governments in Rajasthan and Mizoram, the BJP has succeeded in holding Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh for the second consecutive term defeating anti-incumbency waves. Cutting across political lines, many admitted that issues of development played a vital role in most of the states.
The five states together account for 73 seats in the 545-seat Lok Sabha.
The incumbent chief ministers — Sheila Dixit (Delhi) of the Congress, Shivraj Singh Chauhan (Madhya Pradesh) and Raman Singh (Chhattisgarh) of the BJP— will continue. The Congress is likely to appoint two former chief ministers, Ashok Gehlot and Lalthanhawla, the new chief ministers of Rajasthan and Mizoram, respectively.
Despite this impressive show, top Congress sources said the party would prefer to face a general election in April-May and not advance it to February.
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Although the Congress leadership is happy to have three states in its kitty despite the Mumbai terror attacks and the ripple effects of the global slowdown hurting the domestic economy, the BJP leadership is also pleased with the party’s performance in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. It registered a sweeping victory in Madhya Pradesh, winning 144 of the 230 seats.
“The party’s prospects have received a boost ahead of the general election,” Congress General Secretary Digvijay Singh said today.
“The vote for BJP in Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh is a vote for performance. This is the first time in the history of BJP, with the exception of Gujarat, that people have voted us back to power on the basis of performance,” senior BJP leader Venkaiah Naidu said.
Meanwhile, the Congress’ surprise win in Delhi makes Sheila Dixit the only Congress chief minister in recent history to head a government for three consecutive terms. Congress also surprised observers by bringing an end to the Mizo National Front's (MNF) ten-year rule, sweeping 32 out of 40 seats. MNF is reduced to just three seats.
Meanwhile, senior BJP leaders admit that its two main planks — terrorism and inflation — have fallen flat and the party needs to re-think its campaign strategy for the Lok Sabha election. The party was banking heavily on the Mumbai terror attacks to win Delhi and Rajasthan.
Although the poll rates in these two states increased, it is clear that Congress’ development in Delhi and BJP’s infighting in Rajasthan were determining factors rather than than the campaign on terror and inflation.
If the BJP lost Rajasthan due to severe infighting between the camps of incumbent Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje and senior leader Jaswant Singh, Congress also suffered a setback in Madhya Pradesh because several top leaders allegedly worked towards scuttling rivals’ chances of becoming chief minister.
“At the ground level, the election management that we needed to do...that perhaps was not happening,” Union Commerce and Industry minister and one of the probable chief ministerial candidates Kamal Nath admitted today.
“The coordination between the Congress machinery at the district and block levels has to happen,” he said.
The BSP and the CPI(M) also presented a surprise package in their results. While Mayawati’s BSP increased its tally from two seats each in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh to seven seats in both states, for the first time it will have two MLAs in the Delhi Assembly. The party has also increased its tally from one to two seats in Chhattisgarh.
CPI(M) increased its tally to three MLAs in Rajasthan and it managed to get more then 15,000 votes in eight seats.