[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he results of recently held Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir assembly elections threw up mixed results contrary to what was expected. Pollsters and political pundits had concluded that the BJP will be out of power in Haryana paving the way for a resurgent Congress and the verdict in Jammu & Kashmir will be hung. Almost all opinion polls and exit polls had made their prediction on similar lines boosting the morale of the opposition camp ahead of the all-important Maharashtra assembly elections and in Jharkhand where the BJP is confident of wrestling power from Hemant Soren led Gathbandhan government. Also, the Delhi assembly elections are not very far behind where Aam Aadmi Party supremo Arvind Kejriwal would be banking sympathy wave after his stint in jail on corruption charges and is now out on bail.
However, the Haryana results dashed the hopes of the opposition camp as the BJP won a historic consecutive third term that no party has ever achieved in the state. Besides, the BJP won the state comfortably, bettering its result five years back when it had to tie up with the JJP led by Dushyant Chautala. But the BJP pulled out of the alliance months before the elections and as results show it had little impact on the BJP’s chances. Whereas the Congress, confident of victory, snubbed AAP, refusing to ally, as senior state leaders like Bhupinder Singh Hooda reportedly thought AAP was in a position to dent Congress prospects in Haryana and the grand old party was better off fighting it alone. That could well be true as AAP performed badly in the state. But Congress calculations failed before the BJP’s Haryana strategy that stumped Congress leaders who went into a denial mode by blaming slow counting by the Election Commission. Congress party spokespersons, the Congress president and Rahul Gandhi reacted by saying they would analyse Haryana results as there were complaints from some tightly contested seats.
But a hard look at the state of affairs in the Haryana Congress is that its senior leaders were busy fighting among themselves. Even the senior Dalit leader Kumari Selja openly expressed her displeasure for being sidelined. The Congress party put all eggs in the basket of the Jat votes who form less than 30 per cent of the state’s population whereas the BJP reached out to all sections of the state and made sure its welfare programmes reached out to all those sections that get left behind. In the end, the people of the state thought they were better off continuing with the BJP than giving the Congress a chance. That’s a harsh lesson for the Congress party.
The outcome has opened up the upcoming Maharashtra elections where again the opposition alliance is hoping to put up a strong fight. If the BJP could win Haryana despite the most popular leader of the party, Prime Minister Modi campaigning only a few times, what would happen if the prime minister launched an aggressive campaign in Maharashtra? Can the opposition leaders, the NCP patriarch Sharad Pawar, Uddhav Thackeray and the state Congress leaders fight him out?
In Jammu & Kashmir, former chief minister and National Conference leader Omar Abdullah is at the helm of affairs yet again. Only a few months back, he was reluctant to fight elections and had lost the last Lok Sabha elections. But destiny had some other plans for junior Abdullah. His party continues to demand the restoration of statehood and Article 370. But it’s everyone’s guess how it is easier said than done. The Modi government has promised to restore statehood at the right time. It would be interesting to watch how Omar Abdullah works with the centre-appointed Lieutenant Governor (L-G) without any friction as after the abrogation of Article 370, the powers of the UT are curtailed leaving little room for maneuvering.
Only time will tell how things will pan out. But clearly, the exit polls have lost people’s trust.
