The Congress won the Assembly elections in three States of the Hindi heartland - Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan - where it was in a direct contest with the Bharatiya Janata Party. As the results began pouring in on Tuesday, it became apparent that the Congress had built a 10 percentage point lead over the BJP in Chhattisgarh and had done enough to form the government in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. In the 2014 Lok Sabha election, the BJP had won 62 of the 65 Lok Sabha seats in the three States.
The picture shows Rajasthan Pradesh Congress Committee president Sachin Pilot waving to Congress workers while going to attend the Congress Legislature Party meeting at the party headquarters in Jaipur after the declaration of the results. The party anointed him Deputy Chief Minister in the State. Fireworks go off at the Telangana Rashtra Samithi Bhavan after the party’s victory in the Assembly election in Hyderabad.
