Abusing Sanatan Dharma is reason behind Congress' defeat: Political analyst

He attributed talking about the OBC census, especially in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, where it was not a factor as the secong reason for Congress' defeat

After the Bharatiya Janta Party registered a thumping victory in three states, political analyst Tehseen Poonawalla asserted on Sunday that Congress' defeat can be pinned to their stand against Sanatan Dharma, adding that Congress' biggest reason for defeat is "abusing Sanatan Dharma".

Poonawalla said that with the mandate in favour of the BJP and the Congress needs to introspect.

"Congress needs to introspect on why they lost in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan. I think the biggest reason for this loss is abusing Sanatan Dharma and talking about the OBC census, especially in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, where it was not a factor. If we look at Madhya Pradesh, Shivraj Singh Chouhan is an OBC CM, Former Chief Minister Babulal Gaur and Uma Bharti were also from the OBC category," he said.

Besides, he also congratulated the Congress party for winning the assembly elections in Telangana.

The electoral contest has gone horribly wrong for the Congress in MP, where they were pinning their hopes on a return to power. The Congress, which gave absolute control to the old guard of 78-year-old Kamal Nath and 76-year-old Digvijaya Singh, had no answer for the BJP's social engineering and social scheme formula.

Led from the front by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the BJP had put all its might into the MP elections, pushing central ministers and Lok Sabha MPs into the political arena.

The Congress pushed its campaign around its 11 guarantees, which included a host of freebies, but the voter found nothing substantive in this with the BJP already giving the people the benefit of several social schemes especially the Ladli Behna scheme that saw massive support amongst the women voters.

Earlier in 2019 Lok Sabha elections, BJP had won 61 of 65 Lok Sabha seats in the three Hindi heartland states of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan that Congress won in the Assembly polls.

The saffron party has bagged 28 of 29 seats in Madhya Pradesh, 24 of 25 in Rajasthan and nine of 11 in Chhattisgarh.

The loss of the three states in the heartland will greatly impact Congress, which was aggresively campaigning with Rahul Gandhi even undertaking the Bharat Jodo Yatra to create a base of the party on the ground. Moreover, the Congress electoral slogan of demanding 'Caste Census'' found no takers.

Analysts considered these polls as a semi-final for the Lok Sabha polls to be scheduled in 2024, the results bring happy note for the BJP.

In Rajasthan, the red diary has caused quite a stir in the state after the sacked Rajasthan minister Rajendra Gudha had claimed that the "red diary", which he secured from the residence of Congress leader Dharmendra Rathore during an Income Tax raids in 2020, allegedly on the directions of Gehlot.

Senior BJP leader and former Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, who was seen as being sidelined during the party's election campaign, has won from Jhalrapatan in Rajasthan's Jhalawar.

BJP is yet to decide on who will be take the CM's post.

Meanwhile, in Chhattisgarh, corruption allegations, particularly in state job recruitment, have taken centre stage in the elections.

The BJP had accused the Baghel government of favouritism, targeting both Congress associates and businessmen. The Mahadev betting app scandal, with alleged links to the ruling party, was also a major poll issue.

In the 2018 Chhattisgarh Assembly elections, the Congress, led by Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, secured a clear majority by winning 68 out of 90 seats, while the BJP secured only 15 seats.