Finally, the Hand plucked the Lotus. Assembly elections of 5 states of India – Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, Chhattisgarh and Mizoram, has proved that forecasting any Election in India would be foolish.

Over 8,500 candidates were in a fray in the five states and their fate was sealed in over 1.74 lakh EVM’s, stored in over 670 strong rooms.

After a string of defeats, Congress is back in the game. There was a straight fight between BJP and Congress in three states. On the flip side, for the first time since Independence Mizoram will be Congress-free.

The Exit Polls result in shows that there was a ‘kaate ki takkar’ in Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, for Rajasthan Congress was likely to unseat BJP, in Telangana the TRS- Telangana Rashtriya Samiti was predicted to retain power and for Mizoram, MNF – Mizo National Front unseating the Congress from power.

It is said that these Elections would be the semifinals for both the National parties, before the Lok Sabha Elections of 2019. The biggest surprise was, perhaps, the scale of victories of Congress in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. BJP despite the burden of incumbency, came close in the polling.

Remembering the lines of Abraham Lincoln, he said that “Government of the people, for the people and by the people, shall never perish from the earth”. The citizens of these states voted for change, change in their way of living. Talking about the heartland states, they are mainly filled with farmers – the farmers who don’t care what is going on in centre, the issues of center – state, issues between the political parties of their country, what they do care is that they want ‘filled tummy’ for themselves and for their children while they sleep at night. For the youth, the youth want jobs, better employment opportunities, which satisfy their souls.

Now, this Election could be considered as an ‘Alert’ for the National parties at the center. And for the incumbent government, the lotus has to clear the mud around it, so that it will grow again in next year’s central Elections.

However, in Telangana and Mizoram, we could say that the regional or local parties mostly affected the people (mainly farmers). The agenda of MNF’s Rythu Bandhu scheme for the farmers, in which Honourable K Chandrashekar Rao providing investment support of Rs. 4,000 per acre for farmers is a promising model. This could be the reason why not even the formation of ‘Mahakutmi’ (grand alliance of TDP, CPI, and TJS), with an objective of defeating the ruling TRS, did not win the election.

Talking about Mizoram, why the wind changed it’s a direction from the National parties, MNF’s Honourable Zoramthanga promised that he would impose total prohibition of hard drinks in the state. The strong regional outfits came with agenda and slogans that stumped the National parties.

The citizens of India have seen the ‘Dance of Democracy’, and the magic of its contestants.

Sagufta Sheikh