NDA wins historic 3rd term, BJP falls short of majority
NEW DELHI: Defying exit poll predictions, the Opposition INDIA alliance showed a remarkable resurgence while the ruling BJP-led NDA coalition was nearing the 300 mark in the 543-member Lok Sabha, well poised to form the government at the Centre for the third time in a row.
As the results of the marathon seven-phase Lok Sabha election came in on Tuesday evening, it became almost certain that the country was set to return to coalition-era politics once again as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on its own was ahead on 240 seats, the NDA on 296. The INDIA bloc was ahead on 228 seats and the Congress touched the mark of 99 seats, making impressive gains as compared to the grand old party’s dismal electoral performance in 2014 and 2019 polls when it was reduced to 44 and 52 seats respectively.
Aiming for 370 seats on its own and setting the target of 400 plus for the NDA, the BJP was let down by Uttar Pradesh which sends 80 members to the Lok Sabha.
The Samajwadi Party (SP), led by Akhilesh Yadav, appeared all set to reap the rich harvest of 37 seats from the state.
Along with its alliance partner Congress, the SP was ahead in 43 of 80 seats while the BJP was leading on 33. In the 2014 and 2019 elections, the saffron party had swept Uttar Pradesh, decimating the Opposition.
The trends and the results from the key state showed that the issue of Ram Temple failed to click with the voters. To its embarrassment, the Faizabad seat in the vicinity of Ayodhya was bagged by the SP. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh won their Varanasi and Lucknow seats with comfortable margins.
Results from UP also showed that the appeal of the Gandhi siblings – Rahul and Priyanka – clicked with the voters as both of them raised the issues of unemployment, price rise and paper leaks. Rahul Gandhi has been mainly target of ridicule from the BJP which dubbed him post-2014 polls as “Pappu’’ and this time around “Shehzade’’ as the saffron party leaders attacked the dynastic rule. As the Congress reaches the 100 mark, the best showing in the past decade, the INDIA bloc’s tally defied predictions of all exit polls.
Rahul Gandhi who represented Waynad from Kerala in the outgoing Lok Sabha relaunched himself by undertaking the 4000-km long arduous Bharat Jodo yatra across the length of the country, meeting people from all sections of the society and interacting with mechanics, porters, students.
This also presented him with an opportunity to show his side to the people which was till now hidden behind the perception created by the BJP.
On her part, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra took command of the party’s campaign in the family strongholds of Amethi and Raebareli. From Amethi, the Gandhi family loyalist Kishori Lal Sharma emerged as a giant killer by delivering a crushing defeat to Union Minister Smriti Irani and exacting a sweet revenge as Rahul Gandhi suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of Smriti Irani in the 2019 elections.
Priyanka Gandhi addressed corner meetings, and rallies and countered PM Modi’s charge that the Congress would redistribute the wealth and take away “mangalsutra’’ of the women. This time around, the Congress contested 328 seats out of 543, leaving the remaining 215 seats for INDIA allies.
Modi retained the Varanasi seat but with a reduced victory margin of nearly 1.53 lakh votes in Varanasi. In 2019, the margin was 4,79,505.
Preparing to take office for a record-equalling historic third term, Modi pledged to work with all states, regardless of the party in power, to build a developed India. India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru had served three consecutive terms.
Rahul Gandhi, often lampooned by the BJP as ‘Shehzada’, won Wayanad(Kerala) and Rae Bareli(UP) seats by a huge margin of 3,64,422 votes and 3,90,030 votes respectively.
The campaign for the elections, held from April 19 to June 1 in seven phases, was marked by divisive communal issues and a heavy reliance on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who held over 300 rallies, tirelessly travelling to multiple locations almost every day.
The results defied BJP’s expectations of a strong performance in the southern states. The party returned a tally of zero in Tamil Nadu and lost seats in Karnataka.
However, the BJP made historic inroads in Kerala, winning a seat for the first time in a state dominated by Congress and the Left, and also made significant gains in Telangana, winning or leading in 8 seats. Popular Malayalam actor Suresh Gopi’s victory in Thrissur was a notable success.
In Andhra Pradesh, the BJP’s ally Telugu Desam Party (TDP) won or led in 16 seats, while the BJP itself was ahead or winning in three.
The BJP faced significant setbacks in the north, with losses in Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Haryana. In West Bengal, the party also faced challenges, although it compensated with gains in Odisha.
Madhya Pradesh was a stronghold for the BJP, winning or leading in all 29 seats. In Gujarat, the BJP was ahead in 25 out of 26 seats. The party swept all seats in Delhi (7), Himachal Pradesh (4) and Uttarakhand (5) The election results were mixed in other states.
In Bihar, the BJP was ahead in 12 seats, and its partner JD(U) in 13, indicating strong support for Nitish Kumar, who switched allegiance from INDIA to the NDA before the elections. The RJD was poised to win four seats.
In Rajasthan, the BJP was ahead in only 14 seats, down from the 25 seats its alliance won last time, with Congress leading in eight seats. Haryana presented a shock for the BJP, leading in only five seats compared to all 10 in 2019, with Congress also leading in five.
The election seemed to mark a return to traditional politics, with voters prioritizing bread-and-butter issues, especially in some Hindi heartland states where the opposition INDIA alliance rallied supporters around unemployment and price rise issues.
Maharashtra, with 48 Lok Sabha seats, saw significant changes due to the Shiv Sena split. The BJP, which previously won 23 seats, was down to leads in 11 seats, while its ally Shiv Sena had seven.
Congress was ahead in 12 seats, up from one, and the Shiv Sena (UBT) in 19. The NCP Sharad Pawar faction was leading in seven seats, giving the INDIA alliance a potential 38 seats.
Despite these setbacks, Union ministers Nitin Gadkari and Piyush Goyal were on track for easy victories in Nagpur and Mumbai North, respectively.
In Andhra Pradesh, TDP led by Chandrababu Naidu was ahead in 16 out of 25 seats, the BJP in three, and the YSRCP in four.
In Karnataka, the Congress showed potential gains, leading in nine seats, up from one last time, while the BJP was ahead in 17 seats, down from 25 in 2019.
Tamil Nadu presented a challenging landscape for the BJP, with the ruling DMK leading in 22 seats and its ally Congress in nine, slightly improving their 2019 positions.
The most gratifying moment for the BJP was its success in dislodging the 25-year-old Biju Janata Dal (BJD) from the 147-member Odisha assembly. On the Lok Sabha front, the saffron party did pretty well by looking set to win 20 out of 21 seats. The move to go solo after its talks for an alliance with the BJD broke down appears to have paid off.