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Home > Election > About this election

If Godhra had not happened last February, Gujarat would have been the focus of the current round of assembly elections, with the Bharatiya Janata Party fighting to retain what was seen as its last bastion.

But events turned out a little differently. Gujarat, convulsed by some of the worst riots in independent India, went to the polls two months ahead of schedule and returned the BJP to power with a two-thirds majority. And now it's the turn of the Congress to find its back pinned firmly to the wall.

For the first time since the 1999 general election, the BJP is on the rise again, while the Congress, which had won a slew of assembly elections until Gujarat, faces a crisis of confidence.

This is why the elections in Himachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Tripura have acquired greater importance. While the states themselves may be small, they are seen as an indicator of the way the political wind is blowing in India today.

If the BJP's resurgence continues and the Congress falters again, it could set the stage for a do-or-die battle for India's grand old party later this year when several large and politically significant states, most of them Congress-ruled, elect their new governments.




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