State elections in 2019: When regional parties defeated BJP

The elections in Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Jharkhand resulted in BJP's defeat and regional parties and local leaders emerging victorious.

State elections in 2019: When regional parties defeated BJP

Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) working President Hemant Soren arrives for a party MLAs meeting in Ranchi, Jharkhand. Picture/ PTI

2019 was a year of dramatic election results. And results saw many regional parties forming government in the states. The elections in Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Jharkhand resulted in BJP’s defeat and regional parties and local leaders emerging victorious. The year saw the rise of leaders such as Jagan Mohan Reddy, Uddhav Thackeray, and Hemant Soren, who are the current chief ministers of the states. Here’s how the rise of the leaders happened.

Andhra Pradesh

The election in Andhra Pradesh was held on April 11 in which the main contenders where Jagan Mohan Reddy of YSR Congress, N Chandrababu Naidu of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and actor-turned-politician Pawan Kalyan of Jana Seva Party (JSP). Naidu’s TDP had broken its alliance with BJP and JSP, the alliance that had given the party majority in the 2014 elections. The alliance had then acquired 103 out of 175 seats in the previous election. In this year’s election, the YSR Congress, led by former chief minister YS Rajasekara Reddy’s son Jagan Mohan won 151 out of 175 seats that made them the single largest party. Naidu’s TDP won 23 seats and the JSP got merely 1 seat. BJP, led by Kanna Lakshminarayana could not win any seat. Jagan Mohan was invited by the state governor ESL Narasimhan to form the government.

Maharashtra

The most dramatic election results were seen in Maharashtra, which saw the ruling BJP-Shiv Sena’s NDA alliance splitting after the results were announced. Elections were held in the state on October 21. The results were announced on October 24, where the NDA got the majority with 145 out of 288 seats and UPA comprising of Indian National Congress (INC) and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) secured 123 seats. When Shiv Sena claimed that it was decided that a Sena leader would be given the chief ministerial post, BJP denied it, resulting the former to split away from the party and join hands with UPA, forming the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), making NCP chief Sharad Pawar the kingmaker. Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray was unanimously elected to the chief minister’s post.

Then in a plot twist, on the morning of November 21, the state woke up to BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis trying to retain his CM’s post and NCP’s Ajit Pawar hush-hush swearing-in ceremony, giving a shock to the newly-formed MVA alliance. The NCP then removed Pawar as NCP’s legislature unit head and replaced him with Jayant Patil. The MVA stopped at nothing to keep their 162-member majority intact, in which they assembled at Hotel Grand Hyatt, where they plead allegiance to the alliance. The assembly saw the elected leaders of the Shiv Sena, INC and the NCP, that indirectly proved the majority Two days after the swearing-in, Pawar resigned from the deputy CM’s post. Fadnavis was asked to face a floor test to prove his majority, he resigned from his post and said that he will be the opposition leader.

Thackeray took charge as the chief minister in a grand ceremony in Dadar’s Shivaji Park in which six cabinet ministers were also sworn-in to their post.

Jharkhand

The assembly elections in Jharkhand give another blow to BJP’s hold in the country. The elections that were held from November 30 to December 20, resulting in Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, led by Hemant Soren joining hands with the Congress winning and dethroning NDA in a cut-throat race. The three-party alliance of JMM, Congress and the RJD has won 47 seats, six more than required for a simple majority. While the JMM won 30 seats, Congress bagged 16 and the RJD one. The BJP won 25 seats, the AJSU Party 2, the JVM (P) 3 and others 4.The vote share of the JMM-UPA alliance came down by almost 2 per cent in the 2019 elections as compared to the 2014 polls, but the party added 11 more seats to its kitty this time to emerge as the single largest party in the 81- member Jharkhand assembly, an analysis of election data shows. The Governor invited the JMM in forming the new government with Soren being the chief minister-designate.

(With inputs from PTI)

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