NEW DELHI: After Haryana and Maharashtra, Jharkhand has turned out to be the third state where the BJP has failed to get a majority to form the government.
While the trend is worrying for the saffron brigade, it also underlines the fact that the party’s attempt to garner votes on national issues, including Article 370, Ayodhya and CAA has not worked.
During the Lok Sabha polls, the BJP with its ally the All Jharkhand Students’ Union (AJSU) had secured 13 of the 14 seats in the state and the BJP alone had got over 50 per cent of the votes.
On Monday, the BJP only won 25 seats, far away from the halfway mark in the 81-seat Assembly. The BJP had won 37 seats in 2014 while ally AJSUP had five.
In Maharashtra, too, a similar story had unfolded during the Lok Sabha and Assembly polls in an alliance with the Shiv Sena.
However, the party’s position in the Assembly came down from 122 in 2014 to 105 in 2019. The party could not form the government as Shiv Sena broke the alliance.
In Haryana, the party had to join hands with JJP and had to give the deputy CM’s post to Dushyant Chautala to form the government. The party had, however, got all the 10 seats in this year’s Lok Sabha polls.
Meanwhile, BJP chief Amit Shah said his party respects the voters’ mandate. In a tweet, Shah also expressed his gratitude to the people of Jharkhand for giving the BJP a chance to govern the state for five years and asserted that his party remains committed to its development.
While BJP leaders said that the state polls are contested on local issues and the Raghubar Das governments’ performance is responsible for the defeat, they also said that contradictory alliances can’t give a stable government.