Recently the results of the election to the FIVE State Legislative Assemblies have been declared. In three States – Chattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, the BJP has won. In Telangana, after the formation of the State, for the first time the Congress Party has won. In Mizoram, the ruling Mizo National Front (MNF) has been defeated by the Zoram People’s Movement (ZPM). The ruling party had the supportive alliance with the BJP. Both the BJP and the Congress have shown dismal performance there. In respect of the four states, the election results were just contrary to poll predictions by political commentators.
What do the election results reveal? The State of Telangana has sustained with the political stream of the southern states, being ruled by the political parties other than BJP. This time the Congress party has own the mandate to rule. The anti-incumbent factor has prevailed in all the states, except Madhya Pradesh. Certain ideological and alliance factors have also effected these results.
The BJP has won the elections by the meticulous calculation of vote bank in its favour which could have been cornered by the Congress party. Besides, big promises were made by the BJP to capitalise on the anti-incumbency. The core propaganda of the BJP was on Hindutva and the diagonally opposite Social Justice and Secularism were not properly handled by the Congress party. Instead of it Congress also handled the soft Hindutva. The mind-set of the electorate was not adequately tuned towards Social Justice. The top leaders of Congress party spoke about OBC representation. To that extent the State Level functionaries did not concentrate at field level. The hard core Hindutva was preferred to soft Hindutva by the electorate. The BJP, though at apex level pretends as if it is against ‘Freebies’ but made generous promises on it. It has counted to some extent.
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However, the major factor for the victory of the BJP was not based on its strength but on the weakness of the opponent side. The main weakness was the complete rejection of I.N.D.I.A., poll alliance by its countrywide partner, Congress party. All the alliance partners do have main stake in certain states with some influence in the adjoining States. In all the four states, it was the responsibility of the main partner to accommodate with a few seats to the other partners. The Congress has not considered such offerings to others, whatever may be reason. Even a few hundred / thousand votes would have decided the victory. Despite not getting the ruling mandate, the I.N.D.I.A. poll alliance which was considered as strong opponent to BJP, would have proved its mettle. Now it gives an impression that I.N.D.I.A. is meant for only Lok Sabha elections and not for State elections, which is not a wise thought and diplomatic assumption. The partners of I.N.D.I.A. must give up their sole identity for a tough contest against the BJP.
The Congress party must widen the area of agreement and narrow down the area of difference among the partners. I.N.D.I.A. is the good hope for the restoration of secular and democratic principles of the country. Social Justice factor must unite them. Such a unity has been proved successful in the southern States where BJP is wiped out completely from the rule.
I.N.D.I.A. must learn off the lesson from the recent electoral defeats; otherwise it may not get even an opportunity to rise again.
