NEW DELHI, Dec 12: The BJP may have lost three key States to the Congress, but its vote share has not shifted entirely to the grand old party as some other players have reaped the gains.
Another key aspect of the assembly election results is that while comparing the vote share of the recent State polls with 2014 general election, the BJP’s loss is bigger, as it had virtually swept all the three States by winning 62 of the 65 Lok Sabha seats.
Interestingly in Madhya Pradesh, the BJP’s vote share is higher than that of Congress, whereas in Rajasthan it is just marginally less.
In Telangana and Mizoram, it is the regional parties who have come out with flying colours, a post-2014 trend clearly visible in many states with sizeable presence of non-BJP and non-Congress parties.
Political pundits said this trend indicates that the regional satraps might play key roles in 2019 general elections for which attempts are already underway by non-BJP parties to put a united front against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s bid for a second term.
For Chhattisgarh, the latest data showed the Congress got 43 per cent votes in this election, up from 40.3 per cent in the 2013 state polls and 38.37 per cent in the 2014 general elections. The party won only one out of 11 Lok Sabha seats in the state.
In comparison, the BJP’s loss has been wider with its vote share dipping from 41 per cent in 2013 to 33 per cent now. In 2014 general elections, the party had got nearly 49 per cent vote and 10 out of the 11 Lok Sabha seats.
The vote share analysis shows that some smaller parties and independents have managed to get more votes. While the BSP had got 4.3 per cent in 2013, its alliance with former chief minister Ajit Jogi’s party has now got 11.5 per cent votes, emerging as the third force in the state, which has witnessed keenly fought battle between the BJP and the Congress.
Independents have also improved their performance from 5.3 per cent to 5.9 per cent.
Similar trend was visible in Rajasthan where BJP’s votes have taken a dip from 45.2 per cent in 2013 to 38.8 per cent now. It was at nearly 55 per cent in 2014, when the party won all 25 Lok Sabha seats from the state.
On the other hand, the Congress has improved its vote share from 33.1 per cent in 2013 to 39.3 per cent in 2018. It had managed to get nearly 30 per cent votes despite losing on all seats in last parliamentary elections.
Independents have improved their assembly tally from 8.2 per cent to 9.5 per cent, while bagging larger number of seats.
The vote share situation is most interesting in Madhya Pradesh. The Congress’ share has improved from 36.4 per cent in 2013 to 40.9 per cent in 2018 assembly polls, while that of the BJP has come down from 44.9 per cent to 41 per cent, as per the Election Commission data.
Congress has a lower vote share here than the BJP, but it beat the saffron party in the number of seats won in a close fight. Congress won 114 seats, whereas the BJP has got 109 seats. This means that seats that the Congress won, its vote share was marginally more than BJP, but BJP won many seats with a very high margin.
The BSP’s share here has actually fallen to 5 per cent, while that of the independents has marginally rose to 5.8 per cent. Some other smaller parties have made gains.
In Telangana, the TRS has returned to power with a bigger mandate and a rise in its vote share from nearly 34 per cent last time to about 46.9 per cent. The Congress has also improved from 25.2 per cent to 28.4 per cent, though its newly-found ally TDP, which was earlier with BJP, has taken a beating.
BJP’s vote share has remained almost static at about 7 per cent since last assembly elections in 2014. However, its vote share has come down from 10.4 per cent in 2014 Lok Sabha polls.
Mizoram is the only state where the Congress has lost its vote share and the BJP has gained. However, the winner there is a third player, the Mizo National Front, which has returned to power with a clear majority by ousting the only Congress Government left in the Northeast.
The Congress vote share has come down from nearly 45 per cent in 2013 to just above 30 per cent, while that of BJP has risen from 0.4 per cent to 8 per cent.
The MNF has improved from 28.8 per cent to 37.6 per cent, while its seat tally has risen from five to 26. The Congress seats have come down from 34 to five, while the BJP has won its maiden assembly seat in the state.
Meanwhile, a Congress delegation met Rajasthan Governor Kalyan Singh today evening to stake claim to form the Government in the State but the party was yet to decide who should be the Chief Minister.
Discussions spread over hours between AICC office bearers, sent to Jaipur from Delhi, and the newly elected MLAs failed to resolve an apparent division over picking former Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot or the state unit chief Rajesh Pilot.
In its first meeting of the day, the Congress Legislature Party passed a one-line resolution leaving it to Congress president Rahul Gandhi to take a final call on leader of the CLP, who will go on to become the chief minister.
The discussions with the AICC general secretary Avinash Pande and observer K C Venugopal continued till late evening, when it was apparently decided to put them on hold.
Pande, Gehlot and Pilot were part of the delegation that left for a meeting scheduled earlier with Kalyan Singh.
A Congress MLA said there could be another meeting of the Congress Legislature Party tomorrow morning to resolve the deadlock.
The party won 99 seats and its ally Rashtriya Lok Dal got one seat out of the 199 for which elections were held on December 7.
Meanwhile, Newly-elected Congress MLAs in Madhya Pradesh today asked Congress president Rahul Gandhi to nominate the new Legislature party leader.
At a meeting in the evening, they unanimously passed a resolution authorising Gandhi to name the CLP leader.
“The resolution was moved by senior MLA Arif Aqueel and seconded by other MLAs. They passed it unanimously, authorising the Congress president to nominate the legislature party leader,” State Congress media cell chairperson, Shobha Oza told reporters.
The meeting lasted for about two hours, she said.
Senior Congress leaders A K Antony and Bhanwar Jitendra Singh attended the meeting as the central observers.
Oza said Gandhi will be conveyed the decision of the newly-elected MLAs, after which he will name the CLP leader.
The observers are also talking to the MLAs to seek their views, she said.
All the four Independent MLAs, elected in the November 28 poll, were also present in the meeting, she said.
The Congress today emerged as the single largest party in the State by winning 114 seats, two short of a simple majority of 116 in 230-member house and claimed that it has the support of 121 members.
BSP supremo Mayawati Wednesday morning extended support of her party to the Congress.
Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhhan today tendered his resignation to Governor Anandiben Patel, who met a Congress delegation here at noon after the party leaders wrote to her last night, seeking a chance to form the new Government in the central Indian State. (PTI)
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