It's acche din for Congress in the Hindi heartland states. Sachin Pilot-led Rajasthan Congress encased the anti-Vasundhara Raje sentiment in the state to become the single largest party, almost touching the half-way mark. Joyous scenes marked the Congress state office and residences of Pilot and Ashok Gehlot as it became clear that the grand old party was regaining the desert state.
Senior BJP leaders, on the other hand, stayed away from state party headquarters as the results showed poor numbers.
Pilot took charge of the Congress five years ago to turn it fight-ready to take on BJP's famed election machinery. The BJP appeared to make some gains in the last leg of the campaign as Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP chief Amit Shah and UP CM Yogi Adityanath carpet-bombed the state with rallies.
Trends kept the leaders on their toes as the margin narrowed between the Congress and the BJP as the counting progressed.
CM Raje won her Jhalrapatan seat defeating Manvendra Singh, who switched camps days ahead of the elections. Many ministers of Raje cabinet were trailing in their seats as the votes were being counted.
Trends showed the Congress did well across the state winning more seats in different divisions like Jodhpur, Jaipur, Kota, Ahmed, while the BJP was leading in Udaipur division.
Both Pilot and former CM Ashok Gehlot opened their channels with different parties expected to win seats. BSP was leading in 5, CPI(M) in 2, RLD in 1, Bharat Tribal Party in 1, Hanuman Beniwal-led RLP in 4 and Independents in 14.
Pilot said he was in talks with many of the like-minded parties and independents who fought against the BJP.
The Congress MLAs will meet on Wednesday to elect their leader who will then go on to become the CM. The choice will be between Pilot and Gehlot. The Congress high command's direction is expected to be decisive. Congress leader K.C. Venugopal has been deputed as observer for the MLAs' meeting.
Pilot said people have rejected not only the policies of the Raje government but also the Central government. He said the message emerging from three BJP-ruled states was that people have expressed their anger against the saffron party.
As the Congress appeared to increase its tally by almost 80 seats, from 21 seats in 2013, the BJP is expected to lose nearly 100 seats from the last elections. The Congress strategy of fielding both Gehlot and Pilot paid off as the party fought jointly against the BJP, thus overcoming camp rivalry.
The message emerging from the three Hindi-speaking states was that the BJP failed to convince the people about it's narrative of development mixed with Hindutva. These elections witnessed the issue of Ram Temple being raised during the campaign. The Congress, too, toyed with soft Hindutva, especially in Madhya Pradesh, while in Rajasthan it stuck to highlighting the anger against the Raje government.
