India’s Ruling Party Loses Elections in Two Key States

Maharashtra, India’s business and industrial powerhouse, slipped from the grip of the Congress (I) Party on Monday after a humbling election defeat that spells more trouble for beleaguered Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao.

Over the weekend, as votes were tallied in a round of recent state elections, it became clear that the party had been thrown out of power in another booming western state--Mohandas K. Gandhi’s native Gujarat--where the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won decisively.

The only good news for Rao’s party was its defeat of the Janata Dal government in the backward, relatively unimportant eastern state of Orissa on the Bay of Bengal. But that was small consolation for losing in Maharashtra for only the second time in 35 years.

“The Congress (party) is in a sorry state all around the country,” political analyst Rajni Kothari, a former member of the government Planning Commission, said as tallies from the three states poured over Indian news service teleprinters into New Delhi.

Rao and the party he presides over remain in charge of India’s national government, Parliament and policy, and don’t have to run for reelection until next year. But the latest losses at the state level further sap Rao’s already-diminished clout in the party and Congress (I)’s ability to govern a country as large and diverse as India.

“The party can wipe off its tears with its victory in Orissa, but its disappearance from the power structure in most of the country . . . has thrown up a new situation which can only whet the appetite of non-Congress parties for power at the center,” H. K. Dua, editor of the daily Indian Express, wrote Monday.

At the same time, in-house party critics, such as former Cabinet minister Arjun Singh, claim the economic liberalization program that Rao launched in 1991 when he became prime minister hasn’t done enough for the common people in a country where annual income averages $270. The disgruntled party rebels also claim Rao’s actions, or lack thereof, have cost Congress (I) the confidence of Muslims, the extreme poor and India’s minorities.

“There will be a lot of pressure (in the party) for a leadership change,” Kothari said. “But Mr. Rao will try to maintain the status quo. I think he will respond by sharing power--for example, by appointing a deputy prime minister.”