iNDICA NEWS BUREAU–
After the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) swept three of the four states in India, the results for which were declared on Sunday, global media commended the victory as an ‘expansion of PM Modi dominance’, adding that the outcomes were ‘vital’ ahead of the Lok Sabha elections next year.
The Washington Post ran a story hailing BJP’s poll wins in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, calling the mandates ‘crucial’. “The crucial poll has pitted India’s opposition against the ruling party of Prime Minister Narendra Modi ahead of next year’s vital national vote,” the newspaper stated. Congress won the state elections in Telangana.
READ: Election Commission of India Results Page
Media outlets said the victories would strengthen PM Modi’s chances of scoring a hat-trick of poll wins next year when elections are due for Lok Sabha, the lower house of Parliament. Modi could well return for a third straight term at the country’s highest political office.
Al Jazeera ran a report with the headline, “India’s BJP wins three of four state polls months before the national election”, terming the BJP’s poll victories “historic and unprecedented”.
The UK-based news agency, Reuters, dubbed the poll victories as a ‘big boost’ for PM Modi ahead of the general elections next year, heading its story as, “In boost for Modi, BJP sweeps polls in three Indian states.”
“The election results indicate the voter mood ahead of the national elections in May in which Modi is eyeing a third consecutive term,” it stated in its report.
A saffron (the color the BJP is associated with) Tsunami swept the Hindi heartland on the counting day for four states that polled for their assemblies last month, the BJP, with its stunning mandates in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, stumped not just their rivals but also some pollsters who had predicted tight races in these states.
The election results in four states, especially the losses in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, came as a huge blow to the Congress’s hopes for 2024 as it is now out of power across a vast swathe of the Hindi heartland.
In Rajasthan, the vote count painted a starkly different picture to what some of the pollsters had predicted, with the BJP poised to form the government, winning 115 seats, and the Congress trailing at 69 seats. Of the 90 assembly constituencies in Chhattisgarh, the BJP bagged 54 while the Congress won 35.
The counting for Mizoram is set for Monday, where BJP’s regional ally, the Mizo National Front, is the incumbent.
Assembly elections to five states were held last month, with more than 160 million people, or a sixth of India’s electorate, registered to vote.
