DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA JOURNALISM OF COURAGE WEDNESDAY, JUNE 5, 2024, AHMEDABAD, LATE CITY, 32 PAGES `5.00 WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 BJPTALLYDOWNBY63,NITISHANDNAIDUEMERGEKEYPLAYERS India gives NDA third term, Modi a message (-43) CONG+ 232 (+112) OTHERS 17 (-69) 543 TotalSeats VOTE SHARE BJP+ 294 CONG+ 40.66% (+6.94%*) OTHERS 16.60% (-5.31*) BJP+ 42.74% (-1.63%*) Cong wins first LS seat Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, West Bengal setbacks behind BJP losing majority in Gujarat in 10 years, V 2024 as Geniben makes a chink in BJP armour BALANCE Note: 2019 figures based on tally of current alliance members; Figures include wins/ leads as of 10 pm; *Percentage points. Source: EC ERDICT PAGE 18 EDITORIAL PAGE RESTORED Pratap Bhanu Mehta PAGE 7 THE BJP Tough road ahead for BJP plans — one-poll push to delimitation PAGE 11 INDIA BLOC Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge, Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi. Anil Sharma ‘NDA GOVT WILL WORK WITH ALL STATES’ PM: First time since 1962, a govt elected three times in a row BUSINESS AS USUAL NEW DELHI, JUNE 4 CONGRESS TALLY UP TO 99 Boosted by big gains, Cong says will talk to allies on forming govt MANOJ C G NEW DELHI, JUNE 4 THECONGRESSisbackonitsfeet — almost. Whilethepartyhaswonoris leading in 99 seats, the INDIA bloc—poweredbyaremarkable show by the Samajwadi Party (SP) in Uttar Pradesh and Trinamool Congress (TMC) in West Bengal — has won 232 seats. After a gap of 10 years, the Congress has secured the numbers to claim the post of Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha, andearnedtherighttobeamore aggressive Opposition force. Significantly, the Congress did not outrightly rule out the possibility of exploring the options for government formation. Sources said the INDIA bloc has made some overtures to both JD(U) chief and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and TDP CONTINUEDONPAGE2 BY UNNY nance and heralding the return of a coalition government at the Centre. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, addressing party workers CONTINUEDONPAGE2 THE TDP and JD(U), two parties key to the third successive stint of the NDA at the Centre, have decided to press for the post of the Speaker of the Lok Sabha. Sources said the two parties have already indicated to the BJP leadership that the Speaker’s postshouldbeofferedtoalliance partners — TDP’s GMC Balayogi was Speaker when Atal Bihari Vajpaye was heading a coalition government in the late 1990s. This move, sources said, is to “insulate” the alliance partners from any possible split in the future. The Speaker’s role is crucial in the anti-defection law because the time and nature of the final decision is entirely a call CONTINUEDONPAGE2 SETBACK IN KEY STATE Disconnect on ground, ticket choice to jobs, caste: How BJP lost UP plot SHYAMLAL YADAV & BHUPENDRA PANDEY NEW DELHI, LUCKNOW, JUNE 4 THAT THE road to Delhi runs through Uttar Pradesh is not lost on anyone. With 80 seats in a House of 543, UP has decided national outcomes and withstoodthetestof time,electionafter election. It propelled Narendra Modi’s risetopowerin2014,sending71 BJPMPstoLokSabha,andhelped him consolidate his grip in 2019 by electing 62 party candidates and two of ally Apna Dal (S). This time, UP was meant to set the ball rolling for an even larger mandate but by Tuesday evening, the BJP was struggling withleadsinonly33constituencies, losing ground to the SPCongress alliance. That Modi’s own victory margin of 1.52 lakh votes in Varanasi had dropped from 4.79 lakh in 2019 was a pointer to how the BJP had lost the plot in UP this time. Other indicators of the setback in the state – and nationally – were the defeats of Union Minister Smriti Irani in Amethi, and sitting MP Lallu Singh in Faizabad (Ayodhya), months after the Ram temple consecrationceremonythatcaptivated the nation. As the state prepared to vote in each of the seven phases, CONTINUEDONPAGE2 PAGE 15 MAHARASHTRA Decode: Why BJP fell from 23 to 10 PAGES 4-20, 25-27, 30 WORST TRADING SESSION IN 4 YEARS On exit poll high, markets fall 6% as BJP loses majority HITESH VYAS & GEORGE MATHEW MUMBAI, JUNE 4 WITHTHELokSabhaelectionresultsTuesdaymakingitclearthe BJP would not be able to reach the majority mark on its own and would have to depend on its allies to form the government at the Centre, domestic stock markets witnessed its worst trading sessions in over four years with the Sensex and the Nifty crashing over 8 per cent during intraday trades. During intraday trades, the Sensex tanked 6,234.35 points and the broader Nifty plummeted 1982.45 points. However, benchmark indices recouped some of the losses to finally end 6 per cent down. The Sensex closed at 72,079.05, down 4,389.73 points, or 5.74 points. The NSE’s Nifty 50 tanked 1,379.4 points, or 5.93 per cent, to close at 21,884.5. The market capitalisation of BSE-listed firms plunged to Rs 394.83lakhcrore,downRs31.07 lakh crore, compared to Rs 425.91 lakh crore on Monday. Foreign portfolioinvestors(FPIs) net-sold Rs 12,436.22 crore CONTINUEDONPAGE2 AHMEDABAD, GANDHINAGAR, JUNE 4 GENIBEN THAKOR, the twoterm MLA from Vav, became the lone Congress candidate on Tuesday to win a Lok Sabha seat from Gujarat after 10 years, when she defeated BJP's Rekha Chaudhari by 30,406 votes from Banaskantha. The BJP went on to win the remaining24of the25seatsthat went to polls on May 7, four of them with a margin of over five lakh votes. However, its vote share dropped to 61.86 per cent from the 62.21 per cent in 2019, which had been a gain from the 59.05 per cent of 2014. Thepartyhadearlierwonthe Surat seat uncontested after the ElectionCommissionrejectedthe nomination of the Congress candidate and the other eight nominees withdrew from the fray. The BJP had won all the 26 Lok Sabha seats in Gujarat in the elections of 2019 and in 2014, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi contested his first Lok Sabha election. This time, it will Geniben Thakor after her win on Tuesday. Express see 10 first-time MPs in the Parliament even as the party's winningmargindecreasedon11 of the 24 seats it won, compared to 2019. The party, meanwhile, also added five more seats in the Gujarat Assembly on Tuesday, taking its numbers to 161. The Congress, which contested23seats,sawitsvoteshare reduce to 31.24 per cent from 32.11percentin2019,whenithad contested all 26 seats. Its INDIA blocallyAAP,contestingtwoseats, CONTINUEDONPAGE2 CHANGE OF GUARD IN TWO ASSEMBLIES State polls good news for NDA: BJP ends Naveen rule in Odisha, TDP back in Andhra SUJIT BISOYI & SREENIVAS JANYALA BHUBANESWAR, HYDERABAD, JUNE 4 EVEN AS the BJP-led NDA suffered a setback at the national level, with its tally in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections falling well shortof exit-pollprojections,the silverliningforthealliancecame fromstrongperformancesinthe two state polls of Odisha and Andhra Pradesh. In Odisha, the BJP was all set to form a majority government of its own for the first time, winning78outof 147seats.Theoutcome brings to an end the fiveterm reign of Naveen Patnaik's CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 ODISHA ASSEMBLY Party 2019 2024 BJP 23 (32.49) 78 (40.04) BJD 112 (44.71) 51 (40.19) Cong 9 (16.12) Others 2 (6.68) 14 (13.29) 4 (6.48) ANDHRA ASSEMBLY Party 2019 2024 TDP 23 (39.17) 135 (45.60) JSP* 1 (5.53) 21 BJP 0 (0.84) 8 (2.79) YSRCP 151(49.95) 11 (39.37) Cong 0 (1.17) Others 0 (3.34) 0 (1.72) 0 (10.49) *JSP vote share included in others for 2024; (vote share in %) The refrain: ‘Centre’s power too one-sided, a little ankush (restraint)?’ NEERJA CHOWDHURY NEW DELHI, JUNE 4 IFONEwordcansumuptheoutcome of the 2024 elections, it is the Hindi word, “ankush,” (restraint) that the Indian voter has exercised—shehasgiventheBJP the mandate to rule for a third term — but has also reined it in. The BJP leadership will now havetoruleattheheadof acoalition government, take along its allies,bemoremindfulof itsown party leaders who were given short shrift. The BJP may still dismiss concerns raised by the Opposition but it will be aware thatitcan’tquitegetawaywithit – with a 60-plus dip in their tally. In democratic politics, arithmeticalsoshapes chemistryand Prime Minister Narendra Modi knows that. Ever since he began contesting electionsin2001,hehasnever been part of a formation that’s not in majority -until now. This did have an echo on the campaign street. After the BJP’s sweeping victories, the break-up of Opposition parties, the arrest of two sitting Chief Ministers, the use of Central agencies, the stand-off between Governors and CMs, the way Rahul Gandhi was disqualified, many people, including BJP voters, would ask, “Kuchh zyada toh nahin ho raha? Thoda ankush hota to achcha hota.” (Isn’t this too much, too one-sided…a little restraint would be good). This refrain cut across sections. ● Reacting to the unbridled power the “400 paar” slogan signalled, the banker in Mumbai worried whether it would lead to “a one-party rule” ora“changeinthepreambleand basic structure of the Constitution”. A top corporate called for a little more elbow room in the echelons of power. E EXPLAINED PAGE 1 ANCHOR supremo Chandrababu Naidu – both in the NDA camp – who are together leading in 28 seats. Party leaders said Nitish and Naidu have the NDA and INDIA bloc options open before them. “So we have reached out to them and conveyed our mind…but are not aggressively looking at government formation. The mandate, whatever said and done, is in favour of the NDA. Nitish and Naidu have the NDA and INDIA bloc options open before them. It is up to them. But if the BJP fails to take them along… then we will obviously go for a shot,” a senior Congress leader said. The increase in the party’s tally has eased pressure on the Gandhis. After a decade in political wilderness, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has finally managed to inject a sense of hope THE PEOPLE have spoken and the NDA with leads in 294 Lok Sabha seats is set to return for a third term but the mandate is not exactly what Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who spearheaded the BJP campaign, may have hoped for. Contrary to exit polls that predicted a landslide for the rulingalliance,theBJPTuesdaywas short of a majority on its own – with 272 as the halfway in the House of 543, its leads hovered around the 240-mark at night – and appeared heavily dependent on alliance partners especially the TDP and JD(U), ending a decade of single-party domi- LIZ MATHEW NEW DELHI, JUNE 4 MANOJ C G & LIZ MATHEW Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the BJP headquarters in New Delhi on Tuesday. Tashi Tobgyal As insurance, TDP & JD(U) push case for Speaker’s post DMK and allies set for clean sweep in TN LEENA MISRA & PARIMAL DABHI At a counting centre in Vadodara on Tuesday. Bhupendra Rana Dalits, especially the politically empowered influencers in their communities, sitting in their tolas in UP, Rajasthan or Maharashtra, discussed how an “ek-tarfa success” for the BJP may entail a change that would finish “Baba's kitab” (BR Ambedkar-shapedConstitution) and end reservations given to them; Rajputs in UP worried theircommunitykinsman,Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, might be shunted out after the Lok Sabhaelections,if thepartyleadership gained strength. Many of them, for instance, stayed away on voting day. In one way or another, all wanted checks and balances to kick into a situation which they saw moving towards “uncontrolled success.” But then “ankush” is not so easy to calibrate. Moreso,whentherewerereportsthatinsomekeysegments, the RSS, smarting because of being sidelined by a powerful BJP, did not come out to campaign as enthusiastically as it had done in earlier elections. The words of the BJP President JP Nadda in the midst of the poll campaign -- that the partyhadnowgrownindependent of the RSS and did not need any hand-holding— illustrated the re-ordering of the relationship between the Modi-led BJP and the RSS. The pushback in many places also came from within the system -- the party and the (Sangh) parivar. While the results did not come as a surprise in some states, it is Uttar Pradesh which has caught many, including political parties, off guard. Even the senior leadership of the Samajwadi Party had not expected such a victory. Akhilesh Yadav's experiment of widening the party's MY (Muslim -Yadav) base by giving tickets to nonYadav OBCs and Dalits seems to have paid off. Many Dalits from Mayawati's BSP, which is on a secular decline, appear to have shifted to the SP. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Ahmedabad