Regional kingmaker hopefuls fall by the wayside

Mumbai: The Modi wave has not only swept through the Hindi heartland and Gujarat, as it was expected but also rippled through West Bengal, Odisha, Maharashtra and Karnataka. In this general election, some regional parties had hoped they would be kingmakers, but unfortunately have been discarded by the wayside.

Who are they?

Trinamool Congress: The Bharatiya Janata Party led in 18 seats – a considerable jump from the two that they got in 2014. The Mamata Banerjee-led TMC is ahead in 23 seats.

In 2014, the TMC’s tally rose to 34 from 19 in 2009 while the Congress managed to win four. Both the Left Front and the BJP managed to secure only two seats, respectively.

West Bengal is one of the major states where BJP had been focusing for the past five years and has made a significant presence this time.

BSP- SP alliance: In the hope to rule the state with the maximum number of constituencies, the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party had formed an alliance earlier this year. The combine thought they could repeat the Kairana model these elections.

The saffron party led with 60 seats out of the 80 and the SP-BSP alliance had only managed to get 17 seats.

In Uttar Pradesh, many prominent leaders including Narendra Modi, Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi, Akhilesh Yadav, Rajnath Singh contested from various constituencies of these states. In fact, Rahul Gandhi lost from Amethi, and the party conceded the family stronghold to Smriti Irani of the BJP.

Telugu Desam Party: N Chandrababu Naidu’s TDP’s performance was not only disappointing in the Assembly elections but in the general elections as well. In 2014, TDP had won 16 of the 25 seats but this time it could only take 2.

In the Assembly polls, TDP could only get 30 of the 175 seats. There have been various factors that have triggered the downfall of TDP and the rise of the YSR Congress.

Read: Andhra: Special status and the march that propelled Jagan to power

YSR Congress Party: Jaganmohan Reddy’s YSR Congress party has shown phenomenal performance in this elections. In previous general elections, YSR Congress got 9 of 25 seats but in these polls, it has made a clean sweep bagging all 25 seats.

YSR Congress not only excelled in Lok Sabha but also in the Assembly elections. Jaganmohan Reddy’s party bagged 144 of 175 Assembly seats and left TDP with only 30.

Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK): As some political parties performed poorly, DMK, on the other hand, performed exceptionally well in comparison to the previous general election. In 2014, DMK did not win any single seat but this time it bagged 22 seats. This, however, is no surprise for Tamil Nadu which alternated between the two Dravidian parties every five years.

 

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