Jharkhand eighth state in BJP kitty, it now eyes Delhi

Jharkhand Sunday became the eighth state to go the BJP way.

The other states which the Bharatiya Janata Party, which swept the Lok Sabha polls in May, now rules are Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Goa, Maharashtra and Rajasthan.

In Andhra Pradesh and Punjab, the BJP is part of the ruling alliance, in the former with the Akali Dal and in the latter with the Telugu Desam Party.

The BJP is confident that it will be part of any government in Jammu and Kashmir where it bagged 25 seats to the Peoples Democratic Party's 28.

Delhi is set for assembly elections, most probably in February. The BJP is determined to win control of the capital having narrowly missed it in December 2013 when it won 31 of the 70 seats.

The BJP is also determined to snatch the Hindi heartland states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar as well as hilly Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh.

According to BJP sources, the party is hopeful that its victory in all these states will translate into a higher number of MPs in the Rajya Sabha in two years.

The government is now in a minority in the upper house of parliament.

According to data available with the BJP, the party now has 1,058 legislators across the country. This is more than the 949 of the Congress, India's oldest political party.

This is the first time the BJP has more legislators than the Congress.