Omair Ahmad
The Indian states of Delhi, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Mizoram recently held their elections. With general elections for the country due in less than a year, the elections are being seen as referendum between the ruling United Progressive Alliance – with the Indian National Congress (INC) in the lead, and the Opposition coalition, the National Democratic Alliance – with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the lead. The BJP won three of the elections, two with a two-thirds majority, there is a hung Assembly in one state, and the INC had a comfortable win in the last (and smallest) of the states. These results, which have shown an overall increase in BJP vote share, are complicated by the presence of a rising alternative, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), in Delhi, and offer few real clues about the elections to come.
