The latest round of state elections seems to have gone the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) way. Most exit polls project that alliances led by India’s ruling party will emerge victorious in Maharashtra and Jharkhand.
For India Inc, of greater significance is Maharashtra, where 288 assembly seats are at stake. Exit polls suggest that the BJP-led alliance will comfortably retain power. The story may be similar in Jharkhand, where 81 seats are in contest.
Even in Uttar Pradesh, where nine seats are being contested on account of bypolls, the BJP is expected to win most. Broadly, it looks like it’ll be advantage BJP on counting day. Exit polls, however, have gone quite wrong in forecasting election results in recent times.
So these numbers ought to be taken with a pinch of salt. That said, they may still reassure those who’d rather not see any change in Maharashtra, where policy stability is a matter of concern for several big-ticket projects.
The path for India’s Bullet Train project, for example, would probably be clearer if the same party continues to rule in both the states it’ll span, Gujarat and Maharashtra.
Ideally, the party in power shouldn’t make much of a difference to investments. But it often does.