The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won three states in the recently concluded elections to five state Assemblies and the Congress bagged one but in terms of overall votes polled, it is the latter which had a narrow lead of 11 lakhs.
If we combine the votes polled by each of the parties in the five states, the BJP's total number of votes come to 4.81 crore and that of the Congress are a total 4.92 crore.
Of course, the Congress' lead is mainly due to the massive vote difference between it and the BJP in Telangana. In Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, the BJP polled sizably more votes than the Congress.
(State wise distribution of votes polled)
(Data compiled by The Quint based on EC numbers)
In Madhya Pradesh, the BJP's lead was as high as 36 lakh, in Rajasthan it was about 9 lakh, and in Chhattisgarh it was 6 lakh votes.
In Telangana, the Congress' lead over the BJP was almost 60 lakh while in Mizoram it was a little over a lakh.
The results in the recent Assembly elections would no doubt come as a disappointment to the Congress as it lost all states it had won in 2018 — Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, and Madhya Pradesh.
Even though it had lost power in MP in 2020 itself due to defections, the party was hoping that it would be able to defeat the BJP.
The party's best fightback among these states was actually in Rajasthan. Under outgoing CM Ashok Gehlot, the Congress actually managed to increase its vote share even in defeat.
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