‘Sobering reminder’ for Opposition: Editorials on poll results

Suspense continues in Maharashtra over who will be the chief minister’s face while the Hemant Soren-led government is set to take oath this week in Jharkhand.

In Maharashtra, the BJP alone has won 132 seats, emerging as the largest party in the state, with its Mahayuti alliance winning 235 seats. The mandate is historic for the BJP though it has raised questions over the political legacy of the Shiv Sena (UBT) and Sharad Pawar’s NCP.

Jharkhand, on the other hand, has offered some solace to the Opposition, with the Soren-led alliance managing to fend off the BJP’s “infiltrator” poll plank with a tally of 56 in the 88-member assembly.

Meanwhile, editorials in prominent dailies highlighted several reasons behind what worked for the BJP in Maharashtra, for the Opposition in Jharkhand, and what the results may mean for the INDIA bloc.

Hindustan Times underlined a “larger message”.

“The ruling NDA and the opposition INDIA bloc have won two each of the three states and a Union Territory where assembly elections were held after June. Interestingly, the INDIA bloc won the two where strong regional parties led the campaign (Jharkhand and Jammu & Kashmir) and lost the two states where the Congress was the leader (Haryana and Maharashtra). In fact, the Congress’s under-performance pulled down the INDIA bloc’s tally in both Jharkhand and Jammu and Kashmir.”

“The INDIA bloc will need to return to the drawing board and confront the elephant in the room, which is the Congress. National alliances need a pole party, which in the case of the INDIA bloc is the Congress. However, the party seems to be lacking in ideas, manpower, leadership, and funds to deliver. That hurts the national prospects of the INDIA bloc, and may even endanger its chances in Delhi and Bihar, which are headed to the hustings next year.”

The Indian Express pointed to a stunning victory and a sobering reminder.

“Ahead of this election in Maharashtra, on paper, the Congress-led MVA had things going for it. Palpable farmer distress, with the state’s main crops, soyabean and cotton, selling far below the MSP, was given a sharper edge by the double-digit food inflation at 10.9 per cent, going up to 42.2 per cent for vegetables. Unemployment was taking a visible toll across the state’s rural and urban belts. The ‘tod phod (destruction)’ of parties in which the BJP had played a prominent role – this was the first assembly contest after the splitting of Shiv Sena and NCP – had had a fallout in terms of increased voter alienation from party politics, often narrowing the calculus down to individual candidates.”

“Looking at this, perhaps, the BJP drew up a response, or set of responses, to cobble together larger wholes – it sought to rally women through the Ladki Bahin Yojana; it rebuilt its bridges with the RSS; paid greater attention to the consolidation and representation of OBCs through targeted schemes and selection of candidates; and sought to energise its Hindutva base with the rhetoric of polarisation couched in terms of ‘caste unity’. Congress, by all accounts, did little more than hope that its slogan of ‘Constitution in danger,’ that had struck sparks, especially among sections of the Dalits in the LS polls, would, along with its insistent refrain on caste census, again shore up its prospects and fell the BJP.”

Meanwhile, in two separate editorials, The Hindu said welfare schemes and identity politics propelled the BJP to power in Maharashtra, while in Jharkhand, coherent coalition, tribal unity and welfare schemes helped the JMM.

The paper said that the marginal gains made by the Congress in the general election were not indicative of any substantive turn in politics, and the party is at a loss yet again. “The Congress’s clamour for a caste census and its line about the Constitution being in danger were effectively countered by the BJP. The BJP’s call for Hindu consolidation had more takers, and it could paint the MVA as a platform of dominant Marathas and for Muslim appeasement. Welfare schemes, particularly cash doles for women, also worked in the Mahayuti’s favour. Uddhav Thackeray has been harshly punished by the electorate for splitting with the BJP and aligning with the Congress and NCP. Sharad Pawar’s political base has been eroded and his party is staring at an uncertain future. Maharashtra’s provincial politics has yielded to the BJP’s overarching Hindutva platform, which also has a strand of Maratha language pride and a regional iconography, for instance, in the invocation of Shivaji and V.D. Savarkar. The BJP needs to show wisdom and statesmanship in this moment of triumph.”

Another editorial pointed out that the Jharkhand victory marks a rare triumph for a non-BJP alliance or a party in North India while being an incumbent in power. “Yet, the JMM’s challenges in governing one of India’s poorest states in terms of per capita income, despite being a mineral rich one, will remain. The JMM government sought to focus on welfare to retain its support but it must now focus on job creation and utilising its mineral wealth efficiently.” 

The Times of India said the incumbent Mahayuti’s giant victory in Maharashtra was a sum of many parts, including driven cadres, expert booth management, hard electioneering and a well-oiled poll machinery. And, not least, its cash handouts, the paper said, criticising the cash transfer promises. 

“Mahayuti brass are crediting the ‘landslide victory’ to government’s cash transfer schemes. They’ve called their Ladki Bahin scheme a “game changer”. In Jharkhand too, Maiya Samman scheme paid big dividends to incumbent JMM government,” it said, adding that where the money will come from is only half the challenge.

“Effectively, rich electoral returns on cash transfers become a disincentive for politicians to create jobs. The jobs crisis, in Maharashtra and all-India, has remained intractable. Jobless growth has remained constant for over 15 years as has the recognition that GDP is only half the picture. The missing half is the workforce, growing by 7mn-8mn per year, and ordinary people, aka the voting people. Over 65% of India’s workforce is under age 35. Underemployment is savage. Colleges churn out unemployable graduates. Instead of increasing, share of total workforce in manufacturing has declined from 12.1% in 2018-19 to 11.4% in 2023-24.”

The Deccan Herald said the results in Maharashtra and Jharkhand do not stand a political comparison. “The landslide win of the Mahayuti has given a tremendous boost to the BJP at the national level and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, while the Jharkhand victory is poor consolation for the Opposition.”

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