A nation traumatised by price rise, corruption and all-round failure of the UPA Government transcended caste and class barriers and voted overwhelmingly to install a BJP-led Government at the Centre under the leadership of Prime Minister-in-waiting Narendra Modi, who single-handedly led the BJP to its astounding performance in the lok Sabha polls with his clarion call for “Congress-mukt Bharat”.
Propelled by an unprecedented sweep in Uttar Pradesh, where it won 71 out of 80 seats, the BJP won 282 seats which took the NDA tally to 340 seats. With India voting as one, this is the first time in three decades since the Congress’ massive victory in 1984 polls that any single party would have an absolute majority in the lok Sabha.
The Assemblies of Seemandhra, Telangana, AP, Sikkim, and Odisha have got clear winners. The TDP-BJP alliance notched up an impressive electoral victory in Seemandhra where the TDP bagged 101 seats and the BJP 6 in the 175-member Assembly. The TRS emerged as a clear winner by bagging 63 of the 119 Assembly seats in Telangana State. The Congress retained hold in Arunachal Pradesh Assembly bagging 42 out of 60 seats. The Sikkim Democratic Front won 22 seats in 32-member Assembly. In Odisha, BJD won 117 seats in 147-member Assembly.
The Congress ended up with its worst ever performance by ending up with just 44 seats, and its UPA allies contributed just 14 seats. The Grand Old Party failed to win even one seat in ten States and could not enter double digit mark in any of the remaining States.
The BJP recorded a landslide victory in the national capital, emerging victorious in all seven seats with huge margins. The Congress’ poor showing in the city continued as its seven MPs, including two Union Ministers, were relegated to third position in their constituencies as the AAP occupied second position in all seats.
Prominent candidates who won included Delhi BJP chief Harsh Vardhan, Meenakshi lekhi, Udit Raj and Ramesh Bidhuri. In prestigious New Delhi constituency, lekhi defeated AAP candidate Ashish Khetan by a margin of 1,62,708 votes.
BJP candidate from North West Delhi constituency Udit Raj emerged victorious trouncing his nearest rival Rakhi Birla of the AAP by a margin of 1.06 lakh votes. Raj, who had joined the BJP just a few months before the elections, polled 6,29,860 votes against Birla’s 5,23,058.
In South Delhi seat, Bidhuri defeated Devinder Sehrawat of the AAP by a margin of 1,07,000 votes. In East Delhi constituency, BJP candidate Maheish Girri defeated AAP’s Rajmohan Gandhi, grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, by a margin of 1,90,463 votes.
Such was the extent of BJP victory in the key State of UP that the BSP failed to even open its account and the Congress was wiped out from States like Maharashtra, Assam, Delhi, and both region of undivided Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh form where they picked up majority of the 206 seats in 2009 general elections. In fact, the combined UPA strength of 58 is less than BJP’s tally of 71 in UP alone.
Riding a powerful Modi wave, the BJP made a near clean sweep in Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa, and together with its allies wrested lion’s share of seats in Maharashtra and Bihar. Acquiring a pan-India dimension, the BJP also emerged the main force in North East, winning seven out of 11 seats in Assam, and made its presence felt in West Bengal where it captured 2 seats. lotus also bloomed in Odisha where the party picked two seats, in Tamil Nadu where it won one seat, and in Seemandhra three seats came to its kitty. The BJP recovered from its Assembly polls debacle in Karnataka and won 17 out of 28 seats.
The results brought mixed fortune for regional players and established satraps. Trinamool Congress held its sway in West Bengal winning 34 seats, Jayalalithaa swept Tamil Nadu winning 37 out of 39 seats, Navin Patnaik made sure that the BJD remained invincible in Odisha by winning 20 seats. BJP allies Shiv Sena delivered its best-ever performance in Maharashtra winning 18 seats. The TDP gave a stunning performance in Seemandhra winning 16 seats while NDA partners, lJP and lok Samata Party, won six and three seats in Bihar.
But that is where the sun set in for regional players. With a big chunk of Dalits deserting their icon Mayawati for Modi, the BSP could not win even one seat in UP; Mulayam Singh-led Samajwadi Party was reduced to just six seats, five of which went to him and his family members; DMK had a big zero against its name in Tamil Nadu; Nitish-Kumar led Janata Dal (U) got just two seats in Bihar where lalu Prasad’s much hyped balloon burst giving him just 4 seats.
The National Conference also paid for its association with Congress and failed to win even one of the six seats in J&K. Mufti Mehbooba-led PDP won three seats in the valley, the BJP won two seats in Jammu region and independent candidate won one seat.
The big picture that the result painted will silence those who saw India only from the prism of caste and social divide. The result of the Hindi heartland of UP and Bihar showed that the caste barriers collapsed in a big way and voters rejected the divisive appeal of leaders like Mulayam singh Yadav, lalu Prasad, Mayawati and Ajit Singh.
The massive victory for the BJP will give Modi freedom in picking up his Cabinet and carry major economic reforms without pulls and pressure from any quarter. The verdict is bound to send a positive message to international investment community, which could now see India as major opportunity for fund flow. The verdict could also help Modi give teeth to India’s “soft’ foreign policy and give it leverages in dealing perpetual trouble shooters like Pakistan and China.
The mood of the nation and BJP’s rise as a powerful force could pose serious challenge to survival of the government of Bihar, Uttarakhand and Jharkhand, which are already on the verge of collapse.While former Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan was able to survive the anti-corruption mood sweeping across the nation despite his involvement in Adarsh scam, A Raja, the mastermind of 2G scandal, and Sriprakash Jaiswal, the face of coalgate, lost out from Kanpur and Nilgari respectively.