NEW DELHI – India’s ruling party suffered stinging election defeats in atleast two stronghold states, results showed Tuesday, in a big blow to PrimeMinister Narendra Modi before national polls in 2019.
The votes held earlier this month and in November were seen as a dressrehearsal for next year when Modi will likely go head-to-head with aemboldened Rahul Gandhi of the Congress party for a second term.
“We accept the people’s mandate with humility,” Modi said late Tuesday onTwitter.
“I thank the people of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan forgiving us the opportunity to serve these states. The BJP Governments inthese states worked tirelessly for the welfare of the people.”
“We defeated the BJP today, we will defeat them in 2019 too,” Indian mediaquoted Gandhi as saying. “Mr Modi sold a vision to the country five yearsago. India had the patience to give them five years. But they have failed.”
In both the central state of Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan in the west, thechief ministers from Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) conceded defeat,while in Madhya Pradesh the outcome was on a knife-edge.
In Chhattisgarh, ruled by the BJP for 15 years, initial results showed theBJP winning just 16 seats, down from 49 in the outgoing parliament,trailing Congress on 68 in the 90-seat state parliament.
Congress also trounced the BJP in Rajasthan, governed since 2013 by theBJP’s Vasundhara Raje, an unpopular local princess, winning 99 seats aheadof the BJP on 73 — 89 fewer than in the last election.
Television footage showed jubilant Congress workers bursting firecrackersand dancing at regional party offices in both states.
In neighbouring Madhya Pradesh the BJP also suffered from voter fatigueafter 15 years in office, with Congress set to be two seats short of amajority and five ahead of the BJP.
In two other smaller states also releasing results Tuesday, Telangana inthe south and remote Mizoram in the northeast, regional parties looked tobe leading.
Congress’s five-time Mizoram chief minister Lal Thanhawla was routed by theregional Mizo National Front, a BJP ally. In Telangana the ruling TelanganaRashtra Samithi won handsomely — at the expense of Congress. – APP/AFP