ISAS Briefs

This paper examines the results of the recent assembly elections in three Indian states – Maharashtra, Haryana and Arunachal Pradesh. The Congress Party won in all three states while the principal opposition party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), suffered another defeat at the hustings. Apart from outlining the results of all the three states, this paper analyses the reasons for the Congress Party’s victory and the BJP’s defeat. A key observation of the election results is that, apart from Arunachal Pradesh, the Congress Party’s successes in Maharashtra and Haryana were not entirely convincing. What unequivocally emerged, however, was that the BJP’s lacklustre campaign contributed to the Congress Party’s victories. The BJP, bereft of any leadership, virtually lost the elections even before they began.