Congress lost both its strongholds - Kerala and Assam, says Jaitley.
Asserting that the results of five states were on expected lines, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Friday said the important analysis emerging from the polls was the significant 'setback' to the Congress and significant 'geographical expansion' for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
"Congress lost both the states of Kerala and Assam. In Kerala, it lost because its government was mired in corruption, scams. In Assam, its traditional policy of encouraging illegal immigration as a source of vote bank invited a popular wrath. The strategic alliance between the BJP, AGP and the BPF highlighted this historical blunder of the Congress," Jaitley said in his Facebook post.
Holding the DMK-Congress 'laggard' alliance responsible for its failure in Tamil Nadu, Jaitley said that their poor strike rate pulled them down, while admitting that the grand old party's alliance with the Left in West Bengal was an ideological compromise, which nevertheless proved counter-productive.
"Post 2014 General Elections, the Congress has increasingly adopted fringe positions. It didn't behave as a natural party of governance. Its obstructionism was blended with its leader's 'rent a cause' approach. The Congress is, today, threatened with being pushed increasingly to the margins. Will it be the main challenger to the BJP led NDA in 2019, or will it stand behind a hotchpotch combination of ideologically disparate regional groups?" wrote Jaitley.
Jaitley takes a jibe at Congress surgery
Taking a swipe at the statement made by senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh regarding the grand old party needing a 'surgery' post the loss, the Finance Minister questioned the 'nature' of the surgery that the former was referring to, asking if the Congress would evolve into a structured party with a galaxy of leaders or would it remain a 'dynastic party'. Emphasising on how this election marked a significant geographical expansion for the BJP, he said that there were not many takers in 2008 for the idea that the saffron party can form its own government in Karnataka.
"We are now on a come-back trail in Karnataka. We have since, a coalition government in Andhra Pradesh and are increasingly pushing the politics of Kerala to a tri-polar position. We are unquestionably the largest party in Bihar," Jaitley said. "In our Eastward movement, we will now form a government with a comfortable majority in Assam. We are already a part of the two coalition governments in the North East and have made a sizeable seat and vote presence in West Bengal. We seek to work in cooperation with the Governments of the regional parties," he added.
Launching a frontal attack on the Communists, Jaitley stated the Left has now become ideologically irrelevant, adding the political and economic models that they espoused have been widely rejected. Stating that the Left?s battle was now for an ideological survival, he added that their victory in Kerala was the result of an unpopular government losing an election and an opponent winning by default.
"Their marginalization in West Bengal, a State they ruled for 34 years, is significant. Extreme positions espoused by a few in the Universities of Jadhavpur and JNU cannot be a mainstream agenda of India. For us in the Central Government it will be an opportunity to work closely with all the five elected State Governments for the larger welfare of the people,? Jaitley said.
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