“A probusiness, Hindu nationalist party’s victories seemed largely driven by the sour anti-incumbency mood, high food prices, and populist anger over corruption.... the charisma of the Gandhi family is basically more or less gone”
"Election results in India stagger long dominant party" by Ellen Barry | New York Times, December 09, 2013
NEW DELHI — The results of state elections in four crucial states dealt a blow to the Indian National Congress on Sunday, signaling the waning power of the dynasty that had dominated Indian politics for nearly all of the post-independence era and giving momentum to the Bharatiya Janata Party ahead of general elections in May.
The party’s victories seemed largely driven by the sour anti-incumbency mood, high food prices, and populist anger over corruption. In Delhi, the biggest sensation was an unexpectedly strong showing by the year-old party Aam Aadmi (or Common Man), whose jubilant supporters gathered outside its headquarters Sunday morning, waving brooms to symbolize the cleansing of a political class.
The results from the four states — Delhi, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh — do not offer a comprehensive template for the coming general elections, because they are all states where the Bharatiya Janata Party has traditionally been strong. But they make it clear that the Congress Party’s welfare programs and customary promises can no longer compel a younger, urbanized electorate and that the party has failed to project an image of leadership.
“It is a substantial defeat for Congress,” said the historian Ramachandra Guha, as results were revealed Sunday morning. “Congress itself may learn nothing; they firewall their senior leadership from criticism even internally. But what we are learning is that the charisma of the Gandhi family is basically more or less gone,” a reference to the family that dominated Indian political life for decades.
Preliminary counts showed the Bharatiya Janata Party — a probusiness, Hindu nationalist party — wresting the state of Rajasthan from Congress’s hands in a landslide, winning 163 out of the state’s 200 assembly seats. The Congress Party also performed dismally in Delhi, winning only eight of the state’s 70 assembly seats.
Congress lost a tight race in Chhattisgarh, winning 40 seats to the Bharatiya Janata Party’s 48. And the opposition party easily retained control in Madhya Pradesh.
--more--"
