This weekend, Goa and Manipur threw up fractured mandate, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand gave a comfortable win to BJP and Congress staked claims in Punjab after a decade. While AAP, Congress, SP, BSP and SAD do their self-introspection, here are hits and misses that this elections have witnessed –
Bloopers
1. The oldest party of India Congress lost all the four assembly seats in Amethi district, the strong holds of Nehru-Gandhi family, with BJP bagging three of them.
2. Goa’s incumbent Chief Minister and his entire cabinet lost in the elections leaving a hung assembly in the smallest state of the country
3. In Uttarakand, the incumbent Chief minister Harish Rawat lost in both the constituencies.
4. In Punjab 10 out of 18 Ministers of Siromani Akali Dal were defeated.
5. In Manipur, Irom Sharmila polled only 90 votes, falling even behind the NOTA tally of 143 in the constituency. However towards the end of the day she said she is quitting politics after her first stint.
6. BJP did not field even one single Muslim contestant in 403 seats in Uttar Pradesh. However Mayawati fielded 99 Muslim candidates which worked to the BJP’s advantage by dividing the minority votes.
7. The strategy of riding along with the regional party flopped in UP for Congress and in Punjab for BJP.
8. AAP had individual manifestoes for each of Goa’s 40 seats which backfired. They did not win a single seat in Goa.
Hits
1. The BJP under the leadership of Narendra Modi and Amit Shah tamed the elephant and punctured the cycle in Uttar Pradesh with triple century.
2. Captain Amarinder Singh got a perfect birthday gift, Punjab is the only ray of hope amid gathering darkness for the national party Congress winning 77 out of 117 seats after a decade
3. With the wins in Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh, about 54% of the population in India is under BJP rule.
4. The AAP won 20 seats on debut to make it the second largest party in the Punjab Assembly.
5. It is cake walk for BJP to field a saffron patron for a President. They will even have a majority in Rajya Sabhya by mid-2018
6. The BJP won six out of the 10 seats in the two districts Amethi and Rae Bareli which are pocket borough for Congress since independence
7. After being Modi-fied, the curtain is lowered for the careers of Mayawati, Ajith Singh and Prakash Singh Badal.
8. BJP has finally entered into the Northeastern state and became a real force in Manipur, where it put up a solid fight, winning 21 seats. In the 2012 elections, the saffron party hadn’t won a single seat.
