Advantage BJP in coming Delhi Assembly election

May 17, 2014 03:38 am | Updated May 23, 2016 06:33 pm IST - NEW DELHI:

The reverberations of the NDA landslide are bound to be felt particularly in Delhi and three other States — Uttarakhand, Jharkhand and Bihar — where either the governments are surviving on a razor-thin majority in the Assembly or the ruling party could face a crisis within in the wake of its drubbing in the Lok Sabha election.

The case of Delhi is peculiar. It is now under President’s rule after Lt. Governor Najeeb Jung kept the Assembly under suspended animation. Earlier, the Aam Aadmi Party government led by Arvind Kejriwal resigned after the BJP and the Congress joined hands to defeat the introduction of the Lokpal Bill, and recommended dissolution of the House and holding of fresh elections.

The AAP challenged the action of the Lt. Governor on the ground that there was no possibility of formation of a new government given the numbers in the House. Both the Congress and the BJP opposed dissolution of the Assembly.

Last month, the Supreme Court made it clear that it was open to the Lt-Governor to decide on the timing of Assembly dissolution. A Bench of Justices R.M. Lodha and Kurian Joseph said it could not impose any opinion on when the Lt. Governor or the President should take a call on the issue.

Now the stunning victory of the BJP in the national capital has opened up fresh opportunities for the party, which was short of just three members in the December Assembly, to explore formation of a government. Though on record the AAP is still insisting on dissolution of the House, a section of within the party is veering round to the view that a fresh election at this juncture could only benefit the BJP.

The Jharkhand government led by the Jharkhand Mukthi Morcha with just 18 members in a House of 82 is running a rickety administration with help of the Congress and sundry parties. The stupendous victory of the BJP, which bagged 12 of the 14 Lok Sabha seats in the State, is bound to further strain the fragile government, where the Assembly elections are due at year-end. The story is slightly different in Uttarakhand, where the Congress has a majority of just three members in the Assembly. Any dissension within the party could spell doom for the government particularly after the BJP bagged all five Lok Sabha seats in the State.

In Bihar, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar would feel the heat of the changed reality. Though at the moment his party has the bare minimum number for a simple majority, after the Janata Dal(United) parted ways with the BJP, ripples among his party legislators could hit the stability of his government.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.