Assembly Election Results 2018: Ahead of Lok Sabha elections in 2019, the results in the Hindi heartland states of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan on Tuesday came as a major shock for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The saffron party which has won all the major states barring Delhi, Bihar, Punjab and Karnataka in elections held after the sweeping 2014 Lok Sabha victory, had to face defeat on December 11, 2018 in five major states.

The BJP was routed in Chhattisgarh and defeated in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh in closely-fought contests. The party mostly banked on the image of Chief Ministers Raman Singh, Shivraj Singh Chouhan to lift the party's fortunes. In Rajasthan, where opinion polls had written off the BJP, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party chief Amit Shah put in extra efforts, besides banking on the hardcore Hindutva image of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, to take the battle to the Congress, but still lost.

The BJP, however, managed to open its account in Mizoram, where the Mizo National Front (MNF) ousted the ruling Congress party, but saw its numbers fall from five to one in Telangana, where the Telangana Rashtra Samithi swept the polls.

Here's a visual representation of Assembly Poll Outcome 2018:

Assembly Election Results 2018: Blow to BJP ahead of 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Congress pips BJP in Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, MP; Check poll outcome


The results of these five states, which were dubbed the semifinals ahead of the next general elections in April-May 2019, could be a factor in the battle between the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and the Congress-led opposition.

(With input from IANS)