New Delhi: The lead up to the assembly polls in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan had seen cracks developing in the Opposition’s INDIA bloc, with the Samajwadi Party, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Communist Party of India (Marxist), CPI and even the Janata Dal (United) fielding candidates in the states where the Congress has been traditionally been the BJP’s biggest rival.
ThePrint’s analysis of the results Sunday, however, show that these parties played spoiler for the Congress in only eight seats, in a clear indication of the enduring bipolar nature of political contests in these heartland states. This is in contrast to the political scenario in Uttar Pradesh, where the Congress survives only as a marginal player.
However, notwithstanding their own dismal performances, the Congress was Sunday at the receiving end of taunts from its INDIA allies.
In a post on social media platform X (previously Twitter), AAP leader Jasmine Shah said, “After today’s results, Aam Aadmi Party emerged as the largest opposition party in north India with two state governments — Punjab and Delhi.”
The SP said in a statement that the Congress lost MP owing to “indecent remarks by Kamal Nath”. “The way they removed a Dalit to make someone (Ajay Rai) the party president (in Uttar Pradesh) and then made remarks against Bahujan leader Akhilesh Yadav has cost them votes in MP,” the SP said.
The SP was referring to Nath’s comment in the midst of its war of words with the Congress over seat sharing in MP, when the veteran Congress leader had reportedly told the media “Are bhai chhodo Akhilesh Vakhilesh (leave questions on Akhilesh)”.
On the future of the INDIA bloc, Jammu and Kashmir National Conference vice president Omar Abdullah said, “Going by the situation of the INDIA alliance in the state elections, if the same continues in the future, then we will not be able to save ourselves. The Congress could not understand the ground situation in MP. What would have they lost if they had given five to seven seats to Akhilesh Yadav. They have lost anyway. It is possible that if Akhilesh Yadav was given a few seats, we could save ourselves a little in MP.”
Also read: BJP sweeps heartland in Rajasthan, MP & Chhattisgarh. Consolation prize for Congress in Telangana
State tally
In Madhya Pradesh, the Samajwadi Party, AAP and JD(U) fielded 72, 66 and 11 candidates, respectively. According to Sunday’s results, however, SP polled more than the BJP’s winning margin in only three seats, settling with a vote share of 0.46 percent. The AAP and the JDU, meanwhile, got 0.49 and 0.02 percent of the total vote share, less than the NOTA (none of the above) share of 0.99 percent.
The SP had won one seat in MP, Bijawar, in the 2018 elections. But the lone SP MLA, Rajesh Shukla, switched over to the BJP last year. This time, the party wanted to contest six seats in the state in an alliance with the Congress, which did not respond to its overtures, leading to a verbal duel between the two parties during campaigning.
While SP chief Akhilesh Yadav called Congress a “cunning party”, the Congress’s CM candidate in MP, Kamal Nath, made light of the SP’s political relevance in the state. Later, the Congress high command said that the INDIA bloc talks were never about cobbling up seat sharing arrangements at the level of the states.
The election results in Rajasthan were no exception, with the AAP polling more votes than the BJP’s winning margin in only two seats and that of a victorious Independent candidate in one, holding back the Congress candidate from going past the finishing line. The CPI(M), which had won two seats in Rajasthan in the 2018 polls, failed to open its account this time, but polled enough votes in two seats to deny the Congress a victory.
In Chhattisgarh’s Pathalgaon, which the BJP won by a margin of 255 votes over the Congress, the AAP candidate polled 3,675 votes.
On the other hand, the Gondwana Gantantra Party (GGP), which fought the polls in Chhattisgarh in an alliance with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), hurt the prospects of the Congress more. Just in the Surguja region, which has 14 constituencies, the GGP dented the Congress’s winning prospects in at least five seats.
(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)
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