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| If the Congress had swallowed its pride and had agreed to strike an alliance with smaller parties like the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the unknown Gondwana Ganata-ntra Party (GGP) in Chhattisgarh, Ajit Jogi might have been forming the government today.
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| Similarly, if the BJP and the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) had reached an arrangement in Rajasthan, the BJP might have won with a bigger majority.
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| Finally, even a small switch of vote share in Delhi can cause the Congress to drop a disproportionately large number of seats, so the danger of the disillusionment of the voter is always around the corner.
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| The most striking is the performance of the NCP in Chhattisgarh and how badly it was able to damage the chances of the Congress. Because they had made an announcement of a post-poll alliance, the BJP and the NCP reached a tacit adjustment in many seats and were able to avoid a division of votes.
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| However, the NCP polled 7.38 per cent of the total votes polled. Because the NCP made the Ajit-Jogi led government its target, though it won only one seat, the Sharad Pawar-led party hurt the Congress grievously in as many as 25 constituencies, like Baloda Bazar, Dongargaon, Kurundu and Lundra.
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| In the Sarguja District, which borders Jashpur, the Congress suffered a total rout, suggesting that effects to emasculate Dilip Singh Judeo in a bribery scam, backfired on the Congress.
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| Badly underplayed was the damage the GGP, a tribal-dominated party, caused to the Congress, suggesting that now, even at the state level, if the Congress does not recognise and honour small local parties, it is going to suffer.
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| In Rajasthan, the Om Prakash Chautala led-INLD damaged both the Congress and the BJP, but because it is an ally of the BJP the party hurt its vote share more. In the 1998 Assembly elections, the INLD got just 0.52 per cent of the vote cast. This time, the INLD accounted for a 2.5 per cent of the vote share and got four seats.
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If the INLD consolidates itself a little, it could eat into the BJP
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