Punjab elections exit poll 2017: CVoter predicts majority for AAP

For Prime Minister Narendra Modi, however, the vote’s significance goes well beyond the state’s legislature.

Speaking after the massive victory, BJP MP Yogi Adityanath said that it is the good work by the Modi government and the strategy of Amit Shah that has paid dividends. Congress Chief Minister Harish Rawat lost Haridwar (Rural) and Kichcha seats to BJP. Asserting that the political pundits should stop analysing elections on caste and religious lines, the BJP chief stated that the poor of the country has strongly backed the leadership of the Prime Minister for showing results on grounds through 93 Centrally sponsored schemes designed for the welfare of the downtrodden.

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be hoping to tighten his grip on power Saturday (March 11 ) when results are announced from a string of state elections, including the key battleground of Uttar Pradesh. Modi led campaigns against the rival Samajwadi and Bahujan Samaj parties, promising to bring growth and modernization and to sniff out corruption.

The former CM and Congress leader Rane wins, and the incumbent CM loses seat to Congress leader at Mandrem. Speaking at a press conference at the party headquarters in Goa, Parrikar said: “It’s a fractured mandate, let us see what happens”.

He said that “dynastic politics is not the kind of politics the people are looking for”.

The BJP will also form a government in Uttarakhand after the party led in 56 out 70 assembly seats.

There is a possibility of the MGP too allying with the Congress.

The only two seats where the Congress-rebels-turned-BJP-candidates lost are Jaspur and Kedarnath.

In 2014, the BJP picked up both Lok Sabha seats in Goa – taking one away from the Congress.

“It is a monumental setback”.

Rahul Gandhi, the Congress party vice president, seems to have failed to make any impact for his party in Uttar Pradesh, located in the Hindi heartland, with his party winning five seats and leading in another two constituencies. He, along with Ram Madhav and North East Development Alliance (NEDA) convenor Himanta Biswa Sarma, rolled out a calibrated attack on the Congress government based on ground feedback from RSS workers in the electorally-crucial valley districts, home to most of the state’s majority community, the Meiteis, who hold sway over 40 of the 60 assembly seats. The balance of power now lay in the hands of smaller parties including Goa Forward and the MGP. However, the party that has been making news has been Aam Aadmi Party; this would be AAP’s debut in Goa Assembly elections. The parties will seek the support of regional groups to stitch governing alliances.

In Punjab, where the BJP-Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) combine was unceremoniously booted out, charges of corruption and an inability to check the drug menace did the ruling government in. For the past several years, however, the BJP has been working to broaden its appeal and draw voters from the lower castes, or “Other Backward Classes”, to its side.

However, the results show the votes were not distributed as the contenders would have wanted them to and have been especially harsh on Irom Sharmila’s PRJA. PM Modi hit the campaign trail in Uttar Pradesh in top gear.

Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi is expected to challenge Modi for power in 2019.

“The win indicates that Modi’s efforts to tackle corruption were a far bigger draw than any negative outcome attributed to demonetization”.