It now controls 86 seats out of 126 in the Assam Assembly, putting an end to 15 years of rule by the Indian National Congress (commonly known as Congress), the country’s oldest political party.
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Keeping alive Kerala’s tradition of ousting the government in every election, the Congress-led UDF suffered a stunning rout, which its leader and Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said he had never expected.
Post its impressive show in the recent Assembly polls and a resounding victory in Assam a recharged BJP has planned a flurry of activities, including at least four public meetings by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, deciding the way forward in States going to Assembly polls in 2017 and tightening of the party’s organisational structure in different States. The party took out a candlelight march denouncing the BJP for not fulfilling its election promises.
After Congress President Sonia Gandhi called for “introspection” into the party’s ouster from power in Kerala and Assam, her statement was virtually turned down by party leader Digvijay Singh, who suggested a “major surgery”. Interestingly one of the MLAs S.M.Seenivel of Thiruparankundram, who was in hospital also sent a letter of support.
In 2011, Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress (TMC) dominated the election, winning 81.4 perccent of the seats it contested (184 of 226 seats) and had a contested vote-share of 50 percent. The alliance candidates had won or were ahead in just 77 seats.
“The regional parties are the key parties in these elections”, Jagannadham Thunuguntla, head of fundamental research at Karvy Stock Broking Ltd., said by phone from Hyderabad.
Alliances with strong independents helped the LDF. Jubilant supporters of Tamil Nadu’s popular Chief Minister Jayalalithaa Jayaram gathered outside her house to celebrate, many of them painted in the colors of the state flag. In contrast, the entire UDF tally was 47. The Left which had allied with some of the smaller local parties, was not able to retain its seats.
Gogoi went to the Raj Bhawan on Friday evening and tendered his resignation to the Governor who asked him to continue till the new Government assumes office, the Chief Minister’s Office said.
“People practicing the politics of hatred and terror must have deprived us of political power, but they can’t take away ideologies of Rajiv Gandhi from us”, said Sonia.
Congress is “losing its relevance” with the losses in Assam and Kerala, said U.R. Bhat, director at Dalton Capital Advisors India Pvt., a unit of United Kingdom -based Dalton Strategic Partnership LLP.
An apparently shattered Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi said the party will work “harder” to gain the trust of the people. We will now form a government in Assam.
Secondly, if the Congress won 115 seats in all the states and yet failed to capture any state, it clearly shows that not only has Congress lost the elections, there’s a bigger accusation that sticks to them: that they are losers in the true sense of the word, both in terms of the number of votes and the logic of elections in India.
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While the BJP-AGP alliance won the Naharkatia, Duliajan, Tingkhong, Chabua, Lahowal, Dibrugarh and Moran seats in Dibrugarh district, it snatched from the Congress three of five constituencies in Tinsukia district: Sadiya, Margherita and Digboi.
