In the popular political narratives right now, the assembly elections in the five states is being perceived as a warm-up match for the Lok Sabha Election 2014. In fact, the biggest parties in the ring have made it abundantly clear in their campaign pitches that their fortunes in these five states have the potential to seal their fate in the general elections next year.
Accordingly, the poll promotions in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Mizoram and Delhi saw a strong thrust not on micro issues specific to each state, but larger national issues.
The pre-poll campaign styles of the prominent parties made it clear that the momentum built up for the general elections was what would propel the state assembly polls this year.
Accordingly, BJP chief ministers took quiet steps back as the party’s Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi thundered over all the poll-bound states hammering Congress for everything from Coalgate and Railgate to communal disharmony.
The face of Congress, Rahul Gandhi, also made attempts to counter the Modi wave by campaigning intensively across all the states. Rally numbers were flaunted, goof-ups criticized, promises questioned and with campaigns in these five states, all parties sounded their bugle for the 2014 elections.
Consequently, over the past month, all the states went into polls ending with Delhi today. Except for the Capital which has till now registered not more than 50 percent voter turn-out, the other polls registered record voting.
Rajasthan recorded 75.27 percent turn-out this term, up from 67.5 percent last time, Madhya Pradesh too recorded over 72.52 percent voter turn-out, up from 69 percent. Chhattisgarh saw 77 percent of the state’s voting population turning up to vote – a 6 percent jump from 2008.
A record 81 percent people came out to vote in Mizoram. The results of the Assembly elections double up as acid tests for all the major political parties in the fray. These results will validate how much punch Narendra Modi really packs for the BJP outside his home state Gujarat and the raucous, limited confines of social media.
These results will give the Congress more of a quantifiable indication of how deep they have sunk in terms of voter confidence. And it will also decide if the AAP can outlive its hype. More importantly, it will decide how the last lap of the election campaigns of the major parties will be designed.
We take a look at the INN Live exit polls results and try figuring out what the future holds for the big political players in the country.
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