Election Results 2022: With Hung Assemblies In Sight, Here's How BJP, Congress Are Bracing Up For D-Day

BJP and Congress strategists have begun confabulations over the possible post-poll scenarios ahead of results. While Cong is trying to 'flock its MLAs together', BJP attempts to woo regional parties.

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New Delhi: The results for the five state assembly elections 2022 will be out tomorrow March 10, and parties are bracing up for the D-day. While exit polls have suggested that Uttarakhand and Goa could result in a hung assembly, parties are leaving no stone unturned in planning post-poll scenarios.

Exit polls have predicted a tight race in Uttarakhand and Goa, while most of them have projected a victory for the Aam Aadmi Party in Punjab and BJP may win UP and Manipur. Hence, parties like BJP and Congress have started preparing for the D-day churning out possible scenarios to form the government in both states.

Congress

After exit polls predicted that Congress may not get a majority in a single state, the party on Tuesday deputed senior leaders for poll management ahead of election results in Uttarakhand, Goa, Punjab, and Manipur said a PTI report quoting sources.

While Karnataka Congress chief D K Sivakumar will be the special observer in Goa, party general secretary Mukul Wasnik and Chhattisgarh Health Minister T S Singh Deo besides Vincent Pala have been deputed in Manipur for post-poll management, as mentioned in the report.

Goa

The Congress is not taking any chances this time as had been done during the last Goa elections when despite emerging as the single largest party, it failed to form its government there.

Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram said talks were on between leaders of his party and other opposition outfits in Goa ahead of counting of votes to stitch an anti-BJP alliance.

We are confident that the people of Goa have given us a clear, simple majority. I am more confident today than I was, say last week, because I have spoken to every candidate, Chidambaram told NDTV.

We are willing to work with the other parties, said the former Union minister, who is All India Congress Committee's election observer for Goa.

Our goal is to forge a non-BJP front and such efforts are going on in other parts of India. Why not make the same effort in Goa? he said.

The Congress is also wooing the MGP, Goa's oldest regional party which has ruled the state in the past, to make up for any shortfall in seats.

All India Congress Committee's Goa desk in-charge Dinesh Gundu Rao on Sunday said if his party falls short of the majority mark, it is open to seeking the support of outfits like the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the MGP, and the TMC.

Congress leader Michael Lobo on Monday said they would include the MGP in the government even if the Congress-GFP alliance manages to secure more than 21 seats.

Punjab

With predictions that Congress may lose in Punjab, General secretary Ajay Maken and party spokesperson Pawan Khera have been deployed as party special observers for Punjab. While Maken will leave on Wednesday, Khera has already reached Chandigarh.

Uttarakhand

As Uttarakhand has a history of voting out the incumbent government, Congress is expecting to gain power in the hill state while the exit polls have projected a hung assembly. Keeping such scenarios in mind, Rajya Sabha member Deepinder Singh Hooda has also left for Dehradun after he was asked by the party leadership to reach there for management of legislators if there is a divided assembly in Uttarakhand. Hooda will work out modalities with Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel once the results are out on March 10. Hooda has reached Uttarakhand. 

Congress is also not leaving things to chance. The party's poll campaign head and former chief minister Harish Rawat was in Delhi to discuss the possible post-poll scenarios with central leaders on Monday.

Many of the party's central leaders who had been quite active in the run-up to the assembly polls also arrived Delhi to see to it that its flock remains intact and there are no last-minute defections or switching of loyalties.

Rooms in a hotel at Rajpur road have already been booked for Congress central leaders coming here to oversee the process of government formation in the state.

The party's in-charges and observers in various poll-bound states will also be stations at the state headquarters ahead of results.

The move is aimed at keeping the Congress flock together in case of a hung assembly in Goa, Uttarakhand, Manipur, and Punjab.

The appointment of special observers is part of the Congress strategy to work out government formations in states where no party gets a clear majority.

The PTI sources also said that plans are afoot in the party to shift its newly-elected legislators to a safe location in Congress-ruled states of Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. Party leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is also learnt to have seen the arrangements in place for its legislators in the desert state in case they need to be shifted there.

The MLAs will be kept at "safe locations" to prevent what they said "possible attempts by others to poach them".

Bhartiya Janta Party 

Ahead of the counting of votes, the saffron party has also got down to formulating their strategies keeping in mind possible post-poll scenarios. With exit polls predicting the massive victory of BJP in Uttar Pradesh and a clean sweep in Manipur, the party's worries revolve around hung assemblies in Goa and Uttarkhand. 

Goa

 Chief Minister Pramod Sawant met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah in New Delhi, while other senior Goa BJP leaders are planning to meet their state poll in-charge Devendra Fadnavis in Mumbai ahead of the verdict day. 

Sawant said the BJP is hopeful of getting more than 22 seats (as against the majority mark of 21), but if it falls short of numbers, "the party has also kept open the option of seeking the support of independents and the MGP".

A senior Goa BJP leader said they have designed a "fool-proof strategy" to ensure the party retains power in the coastal state.

He said Goa BJP president Sadanand Shet Tanavade and party's state general secretary Satish Dhond will meet Goa poll in-charge Devendra Fadanavis. Fadnavis and BJP's Goa desk in-charge C T Ravi would reach Goa on Wednesday, a day ahead of the counting.

We will not waste any time to decide our leader and stake claim to form the government, another BJP leader said.

Goa's oldest regional outfit MGP remained in focus on Tuesday as it was being wooed by the BJP as well as the Congress, the two main contenders of power in the tiny coastal state which has a history of political volatility and shifting of loyalties.

While both the ruling BJP and the opposition Congress expressed confidence about getting a clear majority in the 40-member assembly their political managers were busy readying their strategies to avoid any slip-ups in their quest for power.

In the 2017 elections, Congress had emerged as the single largest party winning 17 seats, but the BJP had pipped them to power after roping in the support of regional parties and independent MLAs. In the 2022 elections, the MGP joined hands with the Trinamool Congress, while the Goa Forward Party (GFP) entered into a pre-poll alliance with Congress.

Uttarakhand 

BJP leaders and strategists in Uttarakhand have begun internal confabulations over the possible post-poll scenarios that may emerge in the state.

Party strategist Kailash Vijayvargiya who is considered an expert in the politics of making and breaking and meanings arrived here on Sunday and was huddled with former Union minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank at the latter's residence to discuss how the party was likely to fare in the polls.

He also held discussions with Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami and Pradesh BJP president Madan Kaushik. An important party meeting was held with Uttarakhand Pralhad Joshi.

While there are no official statements that Vijaywargiya has arrived in the state to formulate post-poll strategies, the stepped-up confabulations are being seen as the party's efforts to evolve a formula to cobble up a majority in case it misses the magic figure.

If the elections throw up a hung assembly with neither of the major players (Congress and BJP) getting a clear majority, the role of independents in government formation and also those of triumphant candidates from parties like the BSP, SP and UKD will become important.

Vijayvargiya is said to have played a key role in the rebellion against Harish Rawat by his MLAs in 2016.

BJP MLA from Badrinath Mahendra Bhatt also raised the political heat in the state by saying that several Congress candidates who had strong chances of winning are in touch with the saffron party and their support could be taken if necessary to achieve the larger goal of making the country Congress-free.

However, Bhatt expressed confidence that the BJP will get a comfortable majority on its own and won't need the help of others.