In a virtual two-national party country, no result should come as a surprise since the odds are just 50:50. Even so, the so-called ‘semi-finals’ caused more than a ripple or two as the Assembly Poll results trickled in from five states. Of course, the cliffhanger in Madhya Pradesh kept everyone on tenterhooks, the simmering tensions and emotions boiling over in the very long tussle.
The sharp division in the polity, especially in the three Hindi heartland states where the head-on collision sharpened the feelings even more, was reflected in the reactions of the Twittearti. Not all of them may have been intensely political and some had humorous ways of looking at the verdict in which BJP was toppled from the cow belt.
The cynosure of the polls was KCR of Telangana fame, the progenitor of the country's newest state who swept it like a conquering army, his strategic gambit of early elections and tweaking of sentiment swung the scales.
The debate may have already begun on whether state votes would translate into the elections to Parliament next year. Meanwhile, brought out the sharpest responses on social media platforms, from a tweeple keen to turn the knife into a wound or exult in vicarious victory. In the tech age, social media is the ‘vox pop’, the modern term for the Latin vox populi and here is a sampling from Twitter.
barkha dutt @BDUTT
Gosh.. Watching prominent chamcha anchors who so far have been not just pro government; they have been downright communal — now with #AssemblyElections2018 these same anchors changing their tune. Shameful. Would prefer partisans and idealogues to these blow- with- the- windersShashi Tharoor @Shashi Tharoor
No wonder the BJP is so upset today. The voters just gave them a triple talaaqPritish Nandy @Pritish Nandy
Normally a defeat as near total as this would see a few heads roll in the ranks of the losing side. There are only two men who planned it all. So which one will take the responsibility, step away and call it a day?anjani@AidaAnjani
The discontent is not that he is not working for Vikas, backstabing hindus by issuing selective statements, deliberate no action on corrupt. Actions speak louder than words!! @narendramodiHarshi@ harshishettyan
If Modi is not able to solve all the problems in 5 years, will you vote for those who created these problems in 70 years?Masakadzas @masakadzas
They still haven’t learnt the art of lobbying alongside Nira Radia and fixing ministries and auctions. Will take an expert to teach them all thatMalcolm Lobo@msjlobo
Ma’am I wouldn’t be at all surprised if one has to assess our history. With all the nonsense about hindutva and invaders voiced by @BJP4India the fact is that we have always been a ‘pliable’ nation. The irony is that Tipu who had the gall to stand up to the British is a ‘villain’Ravi Krishnamurthy @ravi_ravi1964
This is hardly any defeat fr a party with 15 year anti incumbency. In fact with kind of freebies thrown in and Hindutva transformation Congress desperately underwent it is Congress that is staring at the aftermath how to handle this after dust settles.miz lost telangana lostImran Solanki@imransolanki313
Not only #TripleTalaq #Demonitisation #Petrol price soaring Beef ban Masjid Mandir politics RSS on a roll Uncountable Travelling worldwide Justice for juveniles Kathua nightmares Recession not curbed Economic drained like never before. #CongressWinsBig #Results2018Chandra Kumar Bose @Chandrabosebjp
Your analysis is not quite right! Winning an election is not important but running theGovt efficiently after the win is important! @INCIndia was given a chance over 60yrs but you made a mess political,economic&social. People of #Bharat are forgiving but again you’ll make a messChintanSpeaks #BadHindu @EasyPeezy Tweet
#India is a victim of short term memory loss. They only remember a few things that @narendramodi #NaMo #NarendraModi couldn’t achieve in the last 4.5 years, but have conveniently forgot everything that @INCIndia #NehruGandhiDynasty didn't in the last 60-70 years. #ModiForPM2019Aaron @ROALY
Haha where is the logic in this statement? Modi didn’t have to solve all problems, nobody was expecting him to convert India into America, nobody expected Modi to end Hunger. what was expected of Modi was to improve the development. Modi may have mixed results in this segment..BetterWorld@HelloCrandil
Dubious Duo did not take responsibility for 2002 GujaratRiots. Never showed any regret or said sorry for the horror. So don’t bank on them to own up to their classic defeat!!!
