Haryana, Maharashtra election results show local issues, economy matter
The Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP’s) less than satisfactory performance in the Assembly elections of Haryana and Maharashtra has once again raised questions on its inept handling of the economy, triggering calls for more focus on it, particularly the rural sector. The sector seems to have played a decisive role in several seats in both the states. Its showing has indicated the continuing slowdown in demand, wages, and consumption in rural areas has started affecting politics. In Haryana, the ruling BJP was marginally short of a majority, just months after it won all the 10 Lok Sabha seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, riding on the Modi wave, while in Maharashtra, the BJP-Shiv Sena saw its seat count go down by 27 from the Assembly elections in 2014. Sources in the ruling party, its ideological fountainhead Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, and sister organisations admitted voters had started raising questions on the government’s handling of economic issues, particularly thos...