Mahesh Rathi
New Delhi. The recent election results in five states have shown in clear terms that the Bharatiya Janata Party has been consistently losing its mass appeal since after 2014. Even the victory in Assam that is being hyped about by the BJP is the outcome of division in the opposition, and its opportunistic alliance with AGP and the Bodoland People’s Party. However despite the alliance, the vote share has risen only up to 29.5 percent while the Congress still retains the highest percentage of votes with 31 percent. If the vote share of its former partner AIUDF and other democratic secular parties could have been joined together, it goes up to 45 percent, and shows that masses do not back BJP as the rightists want to prove.
Apart from all this, the vote share of the BJP along with its partners in Assam went down heavily in the constituencies like Barkhetri, Barchala, Barpeta, Bijni, Vilasipara east, Golarganj, Gosaigaon, Haji, Karigora, Lamding, Mangaldai, Naharkatiya, Naogaon and in other such 22 constituencies.
It may be pointed out that in 2014, BJP had got 36. 86 percent vote and now in 2016, it has come down to 29. 5 percent, that is loss of 7. 36 percent and wherever they have lost, they have come either third or fourth. It shows weakening of the mass support for the BJP.
In West Bengal, BJP had got 17. 2 percent votes in 2014, that has come down in 2016 by 7 percent, and it is 10.2 percent. In Parliament elections, BJP had won two seats, and now in assembly, it has only three seats. In Tamilnadu, it had in 2014, 5.56 percent votes, and in 2016, it has gone down to 2.8 per cent. In 28 seats, BJP was on sixth or eighth position. In kattumankkadoil, BJP got only 884 votes and in Uthhirameroor, only 786.
The worst was in Puducherry. BJP was from sixth to ninth position and in most of places; its vote share went down even less than hundred. In Bahor, it got 79 votes, in Trivallor, 52, in Opaulam, 113, and in Aambalam, 107 votes.
In Kerala, in 2014, the party had 10.45 percent while this time it has gone up to 10. 50 percent, a hike of just 0.5 percent. It is obvious that the defeat in four states is more worrisome than the victory in one.
In all these five states, in 2014 parliamentary elections, in the constituencies that the BJP contested, there were 590 assembly seats, out of which it had gained hike in 104 seats, but in 2016, it contested in 661 seats, which counts for 71 more seats than in 2014, yet it could win only in 64 seats.
The worsening vote share of the BJP and its allies shows that the number of seats for BJP is only 60 in Assam, three in West Bengal, and one in Kerala, altogether 64.
The results show that people have voted against the failures of BJP, but there is also growing mass base for the regional parties. Also the demands for change in economic policies and for the measures of social welfare are getting stronger.
