BJP sweeps Rajasthan, Gujarat, Haryana, Delhi, MP, Assam, Maharashtra, Karnataka & more
Politics

BJP sweeps Rajasthan, Gujarat, Haryana, Delhi, MP, Assam, Maharashtra, Karnataka & more

In most of these states, the BJP has replicated its 2014 performance, indicating a near-zero erosion of base.

   
Modi giving speech in Himachal

File photo of Prime Minister Narendra Modi | PTI

New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) seems set to sweep at least 10 states across different regions in the 2019 Lok Sabha election, setting the stage for an easy surge past the halfway mark.

According to latest trends given out by CNN-News18, the BJP is leading in 287 of the 543 Lok Sabha seats, with its main rival Congress at just 53.

This performance has been facilitated by the BJP’s sweep in several states — from the north to the west, east to the south — despite losing some seats from its 2014 tally in the all-important Uttar Pradesh.


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The states

To begin with, the BJP seems to be sweeping the three heartland states it lost to the Congress in the 2018 assembly polls. In Rajasthan, trends show the BJP leading in all 25 seats, while in Madhya Pradesh, it is ahead in 26 of the 29 seats. In Chhattisgarh, it was leading in nine of 11 seats, as of 11.40 am.

In another state where the BJP failed to form a government in a recent assembly election — Karnataka, which went to the polls last May — it has surged way past its opponents, leading in 23 of the 28 seats.

In Maharashtra, meanwhile, the BJP-Shiv Sena combine is ahead of the Congress-NCP alliance more than decisively, with leads in as many as 44 of the 48 seats.

In Delhi and Haryana, the BJP seems set for a clean sweep with leads in all seven and 10 of the Lok Sabha constituencies, respectively.

The picture isn’t any different in PM Modi’s home state Gujarat, where the BJP is leading in all 26 seats. In Assam, meanwhile, where the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill was expected to dampen the NDA’s prospects, it seems to be doing exceedingly well, ahead in 11 of the 14 seats. In the state, there are several Muslim-dominated constituencies that have kept the hopes of regional outfit AIUDF, of Badruddin Ajmal, as well as the Congress, alive.

Even in Jharkhand, the NDA is ahead in 11 seats, against the UPA’s leads in three.


Also read: Early Lok Sabha trends show BJP-led NDA leading in 274 seats, past majority mark


What this means

The BJP’s performance across these states indicates that PM Modi’s popularity, combined with the twin pitch of a shrill national security rhetoric along with the welfare narrative, seems to have worked.

In most of these states, the BJP has replicated its 2014 performance, indicating a near-zero erosion of its base.


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