Mixed bag
Gujarat has again proven itself to be the fortress of the BJP. Its record win is solely due to the focused attention and high-octane campaigns by the Prime Minister. The decisive victory of the beleaguered Congress party in Himachal Pradesh has given it oxygen. Its humiliating defeat in Gujarat should shock its battery of leaders whose visibility in the electoral arena has been dismal. The argument that its voter base has suffered a significant erosion due to the entry of the Aam Aadmi Party does carry weight to some extent. As far as AAP is concerned, its convener Arvind Kejriwal can undertake his cherished dream of widening its base in other States with confidence.
V. Johan Dhanakumar,
Chennai
There is a need to take a deeper and prescient look at the elections. If the BJP can win a landslide after decades in power in Gujarat despite the blemishes in governance that increase with hubris, it has less to do with its borrowed aura from the Centre and more to do with an utter lack of opposition in the State. As far as the Congress is concerned, the epilogue to its ongoing Bharat Jodo Yatra must frame the prologue for the 2024 elections in Gujarat and beyond. It has to reinvent itself and toil and sweat to redeem an envious pedigree that had steered the nation through long struggle and sacrifice.
R. Narayanan,
Navi Mumbai
The success in Gujarat might have raised the Prime Minister’s stock but it would still be a tough task for the BJP to make its presence felt in the States south of the Vindhyas, where the regional parties are well entrenched. In Karnataka the BJP is in power only because turncoats from the Congress and the JD(S) propped it up.
C.V. Aravind,
Bengaluru
It is after a very long spell that the Indian National Congress has won a State election in the Hindi belt just when everyone was under the impression that the party is collapsing. Now, with the Aam Aadmi Party being recognised as a national party and the Telangana Rashtra Samithi renamed the Bharat Rashtra Samithi, the Congress has a tough task ahead of it in the run-up to the general election in 2024. One has to also watch and wait to see how the Jodo Yatra will help the Congress.
K. Vinaya Kumar,
Secunderabad
Now that two main parties opposing the party ruling at the Centre have won in Himachal Pradesh and in the Delhi Municipal elections, they must stop blaming the Electronic Voting Machines. What citizens expect now from them is decent politics and electioneering.
Dasu Madhusudhan Rao,
Visakhapatnam
