Following its recent electoral wins, the BJP now has 1,126 MLAs nationwide to Congress’ 881, a historic high and low points for the two parties respectively.
In 2014 for the first time, the BJP outnumbered the grand old party in terms of number of MLAs in all 29 states and 2 Union territories. By the end of that year, the BJP had 1058 state level representatives while the congress had 949, both of which were historic. BJP had never had more than 1000 MLAs and INC never had less than 1,000 except in 1977 and 1979 elections.
In the recent elections in five states, the Congress lost its government in Assam and Kerala and finished third in Tamil Nadu securing 8 out of 41 contested seats. In West Bengal, the INC-Left alliance lost to the Trinamool Congress by a big margin. The only win came from Puducherry, where it will form government in alliance with DMK. Although the BJP did not win a seat in Tamil Nadu, it had its first ever victory in Assam and its maiden entry in the Kerala state assembly.
Analysis of all state level representatives shows that BJP MLAs outnumber the Congress in 12 states - Rajasthan, Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Sikkim, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Haryana, Goa, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Jammu and Kashmir and Bihar. Congress MLAs outnumber the BJP MLAs in ten states - Puducherry, Punjab, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and North Eastern states- except Assam and Tripura.
Eleven out of 31 chief ministers come directly from BJP or through alliance with regional parties, while the Congress has only 6 CMs.
However, the ‘Others’ remain the key players in the states; 2113 sitting MLAs of all states are affiliated to regional and Left parties which are the dominant force in Bihar, Delhi (NCT), Kerala, Odisha, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. 1276 sitting MLAs in the mentioned state are affiliated to regional parties whereas only 356 belong to the national parties. MLAs of the ‘others’ in the mentioned states had increased threefold from 415 in 1962 to 1276 in 2016.
Meenakshi Lekhi, MP and National Spokesperson of BJP, told The Hindu,“The two most important things you have to notice is the leadership of Mr Modi, as the prime minister and the strategist like Mr Amit Shah, in terms of ticket distribution to the right people, managing elections, giving right support and analysing the right issues of the constituency. These two combine together making a formidable combination, which is the winning combination.”
Priyanka Chaturvedi, National spokesperson of Congress responded to The Hindu saying that “In a democracy sometimes we (the congress) win sometimes we lose, it does mean it becomes an end or game of loss. In democracy things change, we cannot predict it”.
Further, she said that “We should realise once the BJP also had as low as 2 seats in the Lok sabha, they came to 282. In a democracy people have the final deciding authority, where they vote out if they believe that the party did not live up to the promises. If the BJP does not live up to the promises of the people, which very much they are unable to do in terms of inflation, corruption, bring in black money, economic indicators, people will vote them out”.
Further, regarding the 2016 poll results, she said that “We (the congress) do need some changes, as our perception building is concerned, in terms of connecting with the people and understanding what they would expect of the opposition. We want to live up to that expectation and ensure that we gain enough confidence of people of various states”.
She mentioned that the Congress is looking at the feedback coming from people and the changes in organisational setup.
