'Cong Has Sunk' to 'AAP vs BJP': Opinion Pieces on UP, Punjab Results

Here's how the newspaper opinion pieces covered the election results in UP, Punjab, Goa, Manipur and Uttarakhand.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won four out of the five states that went to polls in the 2022 Assembly elections, and came out on top in Goa, Manipur, Uttarakhand, and Uttar Pradesh. The Congress, on the other hand, faced a brutal drubbing, failing to gain power in any state.

The AAP, extending its base in Punjab, scored a massive victory, unseating the ruling Congress.

Here's how the newspaper opinion pieces covered the election results.

What the March 2022 Assembly Election Results Reveal

In his column in The Indian Express, Pratap Bhanu Mehta wrote that the BJP has transformed the nature of politics in ways to which the Opposition has no answer.

"The sense that the BJP has a deep social base, especially amongst women and lower castes, and a spectacular geographic reach as Manipur has demonstrated, completely belies the identity determinism that has for so long characterised Indian politics. The project of now opposing any national party on the basis of a coalition of fragmented identities is dead. No political party can be averse to social calculations. But every party at play in this election other than AAP and BJP were, in the final analysis, relying on a kind of social arithmetic."

Pratap Bhanu Mehta in The Indian Express

He also stressed that the Opposition lacks the ability to 'think politically.'

"The fact that a politics that has venom, hate, prejudice, violence, repression and deceit is not a deal breaker for voters is something to think about. This road always ends in catastrophe. The somewhat less disquieting answer is that this a reflection of the depth of incompetence to which the Opposition has sunk," he wrote.

Demonstration of Durable Political Phenomenon

Asim Ali, in a column in The Hindu pointed that one cannot ignore that Uttar Pradesh is now much like Gujarat, a state where Hindu majoritarianism is now embedded in 'political common sense.'

"Some pundits have read into the mandate a validation of the governance achievements of the Yogi Raj, particularly welfare provisioning and tough law and order: a ‘ rashan’ and ‘ shasan’ mandate. Others maintain that the BJP was saved from a sticky wicket by its structural advantages: organisational machinery and media management. There is some truth in both the explanations, yet, they both miss what is essentially the ideological driving force behind the mandate, which is Hindu majoritarianism. This was the meta narrative of the BJP campaign, in reference to which all the smaller narratives were stitched together."

Asim Ali in The Hindu

Why Congress Lost a Stronghold?

Veteran political journalist Lakshmi Iyer, in her Times of India column, analysed why Congress lost their stronghold – Punjab.

"Congress leaders are simply zapped by the enormity of the message delivered by the voters. Even the victors are quite taken aback by the depth of victory. As AAP leader Raghav Chadha succinctly put it – 'We had asked Punjabis to use jhaadu , they decided to use a vacuum cleaner'."

She argued why would the people of Punjab re-elect an incohesive political set-up like the Congress which was "at war with itself."

AAP's Challenge in Punjab

Along similar lines, Ajay Vir Jhakar focussed on why the AAP swept Punjab. Writing for The Indian Express, he said that AAP had to just be seen as a "different party" than the two the state was used to.

"The level of dejection with the traditional parties was so large that people did not care to notice that like these parties, the AAP too has a high command that sits in Delhi, that 51 per cent of its candidates have criminal records and over a fourth of its candidates were turncoats from other political parties. Desperately seeking a change, the people concluded that the AAP would provide it. The AAP did not need to be intelligent; it just needed to be seen as being different. As a party unencumbered by the past and without a legacy to drag it down, the AAP thus won decisively."

Ajay Vir Jhakar in The Indian Express

However, he also pointed out that looking ahead AAP will realise that while it was easier to make poll promises than deliver them, in this state.

"After the GST compensation comes to an end in three months, the appalling gap between revenue receipts and the committed expenditure will be impossible to plug. This shortfall does not account for the humongous cost of fulfilling the election promises," Jhakkar wrote.

BJP vs AAP?

R Jagannathan, in his column in The Times of India, pointed out that India’s 'political tectonic plates' have begun shifting. He said that the Opposition state has a new contender in AAP, as the party is not "rigidly regional," but at the same time, it may not be as easy as it looks.

"It seems quite clear that the AAP is gunning for Congress's space in national politics, but it will not be easy. In the foreseeable future, if Congress does not goof up further, it is difficult to see AAP making inroads in the remaining Hindi-belt states where Congress and BJP are in straight contest. Nor is there any likelihood that AAP can make any strides in the south, where regional parties rule the roost."

R Jagannathan in The Times of India

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