Modi Makes Mahagatbandhan Eat Humble Pie

The Mahagatbandhan has had to eat humble pie across the country but for a fig leaf in Tamil Nadu.

The BJP and Trinamool Congress were neck-and-neck in Bengal while in Andhra Pradesh, Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy’s YSR Congress swept with a perfect 10/10, wiping out Chandrababu Naidu’s TDP.

Trinamool’s firebrand leader Mamata Banerjee was one of the fiercest critics of the Narendra Modi government.

In Telangana, the TRS was not doing as well as predicted by the exit polls, leading in 11 of the state’s 17 seats. The BJP was leading in Adilabad, Karimnagar, Nizamabad and Secunderabad seats there, while the Congress led in just one. The AIMIM’s Asaduddin Owaisi was leading in the Hyderabad seat.

The Congress’s prominent face and former minister, Renuka Chowdhry was trailing in Khamam to the TRS.

The Mahagathbandhan also turned out to be a non-starter in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar where the Narendra Modi-led alliance swept the Lok Sabha polls.

It looked like the NDA would be able to repeat the performance in 2014 when it had won 104 of the total 120 seats (80 in UP and 40 in Bihar). It was leading in about 60 seats at the time of writing this report.

In Bihar, the NDA was doing even better than the last time by taking a lead in 38 out of 40 seats. The BJP and JDU were leading in 16 and 15 seats each, respectively, while the RJD led in just two seats.

The Grand Alliance was not able to make a dent into the formidable BJP-JDU combine at a time when RJD president and former Chief Minister Lalu Prasad is serving a jail sentence in Ranchi for his involvement in the ₹950 crore fodder scam.

The BJD had steered clear of a “united Opposition rally” in Kolkata in January.

In Tamil Nadu, the DMK won all 21 seats.

In Delhi, the BJP was leading in all seven seats. Gautam Gambhir had got a lead of over 40,000 votes in East Delhi, while AAP’s Atishi trailed behind Congress’ Arvinder Singh Lovely, reported The Wire.

EC data said the BJP polled 56.7 per cent of the votes, while Congress is now in second spot with over 21 per cent votes followed by AAP with a little over 18 per cent votes.

Meenakshi Lekhi had extended her lead against the Congress’ Ajay Maken in New Delhi.

In North East Delhi, BJP Delhi president Manoj Tiwari was leading over Congress Delhi president Sheila Dikshit by 1,38,107 votes.

In South Delhi, BJP’s sitting MP Ramesh Bhidhuri was comfortably leading against AAP spokesperson Raghav Chadha while the Congress’ Vijender Singh trailed in third place.