New Delhi: It is going to be east coast corridor of Chennai-Bhubaneswar-Kolkata axis that will play the role of a real Opposition in the 16th Lok Sabha, as the Congress is completely down and out and the BJP for the first time in the history of its existence got a clear majority. But the regional parties belonging to land-locked states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar have got decimated to the extent of going voiceless in the new Lower House.
In Tamil Nadu, the ruling AIADMK, led by J. Jayalalithaa, has completely swept the polls by winning and leading in as many as 37 parliamentary constituencies of the total 39 in the state. Though the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister is considered to be close to Narendra Modi, who is set to be the next Prime Minister, her political stance in the Lower House will be determined by the stand taken by the other two strong chief ministers — Naveen Patnaik of Odisha and Mamata Banerjee of West Bengal.
Similarly, Ms Banerjee-led TMC swept the polls in West Bengal with the party expected to bag 34 of 42 seats from the state. The party’s performance hit the CPM hard, as the Left party got completely decimated to a single-digit figure, which also includes its tally from Kerala and Tripura.
The other regional party which could hold on to its ground in the state, is Naveen Patnaik-led BJD, which is set to sweep the state by winning 19 out of the 21 parliamentary seats from Odisha.
However, alarm bell has rung for regional leaders like Mulayam Singh Yadav of the SP and Ms Mayawati of the BSP in Uttar Pradesh and Nitish Kumar of the JD(U) and Lalu Prasad Yadav of the RJD in Bihar. At least three of them (SP, JDU and BSP) perform worst in the history of their existence. The RJD, however, appears to be improving its tally from its worst-ever performance (4 seats) in the 2009, but it is not going to be substantial enough to make its presence felt.
The worst among all is going to be BSP, which is set to draw blank, whereas the JD(U) will have to be content with two seats only. In the 15th Lok Sabha, JD(U) had 20 MPs and the BSP had 19. Similarly, the SP, which had 23 MPs in Lok Sabha is likely to end up getting only 5 seats.
