Nothing between them: Cong, BJP have similar vote shares, but not same number of seats

Considered as a weather vane to 2019 general elections, the outcome of the elections are significant as MP, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan account for 65 Lok Sabha seats of which the BJP had won 62 in 2014 when the Narendra Modi wave swept the Hindi heartland.

Madhya Pradesh, where 116 seats are required to form the government, is witnessing a neck and neck contest between the ruling BJP and the opposition Congress.

After a seesaw battle against the ruling BJP, a resurgent Congress emerged as the single largest party by a slender margin in the tantalisingly close Madhya Pradesh assembly elections.

The Congress staved off a spirited performance from BJP to win 114 seats, though it fell two seats short of securing a simple majority of 116 in the 230-member House. The BJP, which had ruled the state for 15 years, got 109 seats.

In a boost to the Congress, Bahujan Samaj Party leader Mayawati extended support to the grand old party in MP, while the Samajwadi Party indicated that the party could join a grand alliance of opposition parties to take on the BJP in the 2019 polls.

Let’s look at how Congress and BJP stack up against each other in terms of vote share.

Interestingly, the BJP’s vote share (41.0 percent) was slightly more than the Congress, which secured 40.9 percent of vote share. However, it is less as compared to what the saffron party secured when they won a whopping 165 seats in 2013 (44.88 percent) in MP.

READ : Assembly Election LIVE: Congress back in the lead in MP, BJP staring at whitewash

Whereas, the Congress reaped benefits of anti-incumbency factor against the Vasundhara Raje regime in Rajasthan as it won 99 seats, falling two seats short of securing the 101-majority mark. Its ally Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) won one seat for a total of 100 seats and the grand old party also has support of BSP, which won 6 seats. Significantly, nine of the 13 independents elected in Rajasthan are Congress rebels.

In Rajasthan, the Congress managed to significantly increase its vote share as it has secured 39.3 percent vote share, six percent more than what it gained in 2013 when it won a paltry 21 seats. In comparison, the BJP’s vote share has gone down from 45.2 percent to 38.8 percent, a difference of 6.4 percent. In 2013, the BJP won a staggering 163 seats in the 200-member House.

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Seen as a weather vane to 2019 general elections, the outcome of the elections holds significance as MP, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan account for 65 Lok Sabha seats of which the BJP had won 62 in 2014 when the Narendra Modi wave swept the Hindi heartland.

The gains for the Congress in these states have not only come as a shot in the arm for the grand old party in the run-up to the 2019 elections but also bolster the party’s claim that it is the natural pivot of any possible pan-Indian alliance against BJP.