BJP Captures Hindi Heartland with Wins in MP, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan; Congress Finds Southern Comfort in Telangana

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won three of four key state elections in Sunday’s vote count, putting it in a pole position to win a stunning third term at the Centre in next year’s Lok Sabha polls.

Regaining control of Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh from the Congress and retaining Madhya Pradesh for a record fifth term means that the BJP is looking virtually unassailable in the “Hindi heartland” of northern and central India.

“The results in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan indicate that the people of India are firmly with politics of good governance and development, which the @BJP4India stands for,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi wrote on social media site X.

The results will also deny the Congress an upper hand while bargaining for seats with allies in the opposition INDIA bloc that aims to oust the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance in the 2024 general elections.

Vote counting in a fifth state, Mizoram, is set for Monday where BJP’s regional ally, the Mizo National Front, is in power.

Defying expectations of a close contest in Madhya Pradesh and a possible Congress win, the BJP scored a massive victory in the state, netting 163 seats and leaving its primary rival with just 66. The Madhya Pradesh results will hugely disappoint Congress, which had thrown its weight behind former chief minister Kamal Nath and given him a free hand, hoping for a victory.

The Congress’s attempts to tide over the faction fight in Rajasthan proved insufficient as the power tussle between the Ashok Gehlot and Sachin Pilot camps appears to have dented the party’s chances. The results are in line with exit poll predictions of a BJP victory and perpetuate the state’s trend of not re-electing the incumbent party.

Chhattisgarh sprung a surprise as while all exit polls had predicted a Congress victory in the tribal-dominated state, the BJP in the end comfortably emerged victorious with 54 seats. The Congress was left with 35 seats. The party, which claimed a turnaround for the state under chief minister Bhupesh Baghel, suffered setbacks in tribal regions and was also hurt by allegations of corruption.

The Congress will seek some consolation in Telangana, where it ended the nearly 10-year-old rule of the K Chandrashekar Rao-led Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) government. The polls served as a chance for the Congress to come to power in another southern state after it wrested control of Karnataka from the BJP in May.