DELHI - Prime minister Narendra Modi Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party
(BJP) has made big gains in the Maharashtra and Haryana state elections, results showed
on Sunday, an endorsement likely to encourage him to step up the pace of economic
reforms.
The BJP was set to win 122 of 288 seats in Maharashtra. This more than doubles
its seat count in the state, which is home to the financial hub of Mumbai, but falls short of
an outright majority.
The BJP won 47 of 90 seats in Haryana, which borders the capital, New Delhi -
enough to rule alone.
State elections determine seat shares in the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of
parliament, where the BJP and its allies lack a majority.
The BJP hopes for gains in a clutch of state polls between now and 2017 to get
towards the majority it needs to pass most legislation without help from the opposition.
The 64-year-old Modi, a gifted stump orator, hit the campaign trail hard. He will be
able to reap capital from the victories even though the BJP did not achieve its ambition of
winning enough seats to rule Maharashtra alone.
"There is still a Modi wave that is like a tsunami" BJP president and Modi
campaign manager Amit Shah told reporters after most of the seats had been declared.
"Today’s results give a seal of approval to the Modi government over the past
four months, and prove that our countryfolk recognise Modi as an undisputed leader of
India."
Though the results represent major gains for the party since the last state
elections, the BJP's share of the vote in both Haryana and Maharashtra was just down from
the May 2014 general election, when it won the first outright majority in 30 years.
Both states, which voted on Wednesday, were formerly bastions of the Congress
party that has long dominated Indian politics. As in the general election, Congress was
decimated, and risks sliding into oblivion under mother-son duo Sonia and Rahul Gandhi.
"Today is likely to be both a BJP win and a funeral of a 150-year-old party," said
investment manager and columnist Surjit Bhalla, referring to the organisation founded in
1885 and led by the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty for four generations.
REFORM BOOST
Modi has already seized on exit polls giving the BJP a clear lead to shake up his
economic team, replacing the top civil servant at the finance ministry and hiring U.S.-based
economic Arvind Subramanian as his chief economic adviser.
His government on Saturday scrapped diesel price controls and raised the cost of
natural gas, giving market forces greater sway as it seeks to attract energy investment,
boost competition and cut subsidy costs.
Senior government officials say Modi may soon beef up the cabinet he formed at
the end of May to ease pressure on heavyweights like Arun Jaitley, who holds both the
finance and defence portfolios.
Jaitley, recovering from a stomach operation, has his work cut out drafting an
annual budget to encourage business investment and revive Asia's third largest economy
from a prolonged slowdown by February. more. >>
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