The drum beats at the Congress headquarters on Tuesday was in sharp contrast with the muted celebrations in the BJP office where spirits lifted momentarily when Prime Minister Narendra Modi walked in to assert that he had secured his place in history by securing a third term comparable only to Jawaharlal Nehru’s feat.
The Congress brass, Sonia and Priyanka Gandhi in a bright yellow sari, and Rahul in trademark white T-shirt and trousers, preceded by a beaming party president Mallikarjun Kharge launched the first salvo, asking Modi to step aside as the BJP had failed to secure the majority.
But Modi was undeterred.
“On this sacred day, it is confirmed that NDA is making govt for the third time. We are grateful to the people. For the first time since 1962, a government has returned to power after completing two consecutive terms,” Modi said.
“The Congress has been wiped out in Arunachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Sikkim. The BJP is going to form the government in Odisha. The BJP won a seat in Kerala as well… our party workers in Kerala have made a lot of sacrifices,” he added.
But this forced exuberance barely hid the disappointment writ large on the faces of Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and BJP President J P Nadda. “The numbers in UP were shocking. We were disappointed in Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Haryana, too,” a top BJP leader told businessline.
no clear mandate
Unlike the previous two general elections, a clear mandate has eluded the BJP this time and the party appears set to win 240 seats, down 63 from the 303 it had won in 2019, and 33 short of a clear majority of 272 in the 543-member Lok Sabha.
The BJP will make up for the shortfall with Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United), which looked set to win 12 seats in Bihar, and the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), looking to bag 17 seats in Andhra Pradesh besides minor allies including the Rashtriya Lok Samata Party, the Lok Janshakti Party, the Hindustani Awam Morcha, and the Jana Sena Party. Together, the NDA constituents come up to about 291 seats, 19 over the majority mark in the Lower House.
All these allies will undoubtedly be part of the new government, which is expected to be sworn in any day between June 5 and 9. The Rashtrapathi Bhavan announced on Tuesday that part of its areas will remain closed for the general public for the swearing-in ceremony of the Council of Ministers. The last meeting of the outgoing Union Cabinet has been scheduled for 11 am on Wednesday after which it will resign and prepare for the next swearing-in.
opposition’s new tale
The story was entirely different for the Opposition, which had been reeling under the BJP’s brute strength in the Lower House for two terms. After its humiliating performance in 2014, when it got 44 seats, and 2019, when won 52 seats which was not enough even to secure the Leader of Opposition recognition, the Congress was by itself set to win 99 seats in the Lok Sabha this time around.
Smiling and waving a copy of the Constitution, which he was seen using during the election campaign, Rahul Gandhi said: “People have unanimously stated that we do not want Narendra Modi and Amit Shah to run the country. The Congress has given a new pro-poor vision to the country,” he said. The Opposition INDI Alliance became a major bloc in the Lower House with 234 seats, either won or set to win (by 10 pm). Its constituents are scheduled to meet in Delhi on Wednesday and there were reports of some of them already getting in touch with Chandrababu Naidu and Nitish Kumar, who jilted the Opposition alliance to join the NDA just ahead of the elections. Addressing a press conference, NCP leader Sharad Pawar, however, denied these reports.
overwhelming in UP
The INDI Alliance’s performance was overwhelming in the politically most critical State of Uttar Pradesh where it looked to bag 43 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats. In Maharashtra, too, the Opposition alliance did well, leading in 29 out of 48 seats while the BJP-led alliance was ahead in 18. In 2019, the NDA, which had included the undivided Shiv Sena, had secured a staggering 42 of the 48 seats in Maharashtra.
Even in direct contests with the BJP, the Congress performed well this time. In Rajasthan, for instance, where the BJP had won 25 of the 25 seats in 2019, the Congress was set to snatch eight seats this time. In Haryana, where the BJP had won all ten seats in 2019, the Congress was closing in on five.
The BJP, however, repeated its winning performance in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.