The assembly election results of Tuesday had an unexpected twist, with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) defying pollsters to win a majority of the 90 seats in Haryana’s legislative body, while the National Conference and Congress alliance swept Jammu and Kashmir, as many had forecast.
The focus of discussion has thus been the Congress party’s relatively weak showing in Haryana, which it was projected to win comfortably by exit polls.
That the final tally gave the BJP a third term in power in this state has punctured the notion that it’s losing its appeal in north India, something that the Congress-led opposition has been hinting at ever since the BJP dropped below the halfway mark in the Lok Sabha this summer.
At one point during the campaign, discontent with the BJP among farmers, soldiers and wrestlers seemed to corroborate that view. But the outcome indicates that the party has greater resilience than critics gave it credit for.
As India’s ruling party gears up for polls in Maharashtra and Jharkhand this year and Delhi in early 2025, it’s in a position to dismiss the analysis that says its era of dominance is fast ending. The opposition has more work to do than it may think.