Recent Assembly Elections: Lesson For All Political Parties

The recent assembly elections in Maharashtra & Haryana are a clear lesson for many political parties and are suggesting many changes in Indian polity.

Mumbai: The results of recent assembly elections are out and BJP is clear winner in Haryana whereas it is just one feet away to form the government in MH. Haryana voters gave 47 MLA’s to BJP in a house of 90 whereas Maharasthra voters did not favour the BJP with absolute majority. The voters gave just 123 MLA seats in a house of 288 MLA’s. The party is short of 22 seats from the magic figure of 145 MLA’s required to form the government.

While the negotiations and discussions among various political parties are still continuing on the subject of supporting the BJP (as the party is the single largest party and is bound to form the government). The options being exercised by BJP include:

• Revive the earlier alliance with Shiv Sena. The alliance continued for more than 2 decades and got just broke before the assembly elections on the issue of seat sharing. The BJP could not get what it genuinely wanted from Shiv Sena thereby forcing both the parties to face the elections individually. There was a four-faced competition in the elections.
• The other option before the BJP is to take outside support from other major parties like NCP who went on record to say that it will ensure external support to the BJP government. While NCP’s offer on its face seems to be attractive, NCP chief Sharad Pawar is never a dependable alliance partner and his political mileage always remains top of his agenda.
• The final option would be to form a minority government. As the BJP is the single largest party, none of the other parties are likely to weaken the minority government, even if it is formed. Above all, there is a senior BJP leader (Ch. Vidyasagar Rao) as the governor overseeing the activities of the state.
• There is an increasing list of aspirants who want to sit in chair of CM of Maharasthra. The latest addition to the list is Nitin Gadkari, a senior BJP leader from the state who is having a cleaner image in the cadre of the state.

While the story of MH remains so, the political picture in Haryana is very clear. The BJP is going to form the government on its own.

The agenda of new government in these two states is totally different subject and we have to see the reaction of the new government on various decisions/actions by earlier congress governments in these states.