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The BJP cannot claim to be a national party since its strength is in only a few states in the north, claimed Congress Party spokesman Anil Shastri. "The (BJP) is getting irrelevant day by day in the Indian political scenario," he asserted. "The government has also become a lame duck government with its allies pulling from different sides. The election results have tremendously weakened the government at the center."

In May, the opposition Congress Party-led coalitions won assembly elections in the northeastern state of Assam, the southern states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu, and the union territory of Pondicherry. The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) won in the eastern state of West Bengal for the sixth straight time.

The Congress Party — and parties supported by it — now leads governments in 11 of India's 28 states: Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar (Congress Party supported Rashtriya Janta Dal, or RJD), Karnataka, Tamil Nadu (Congress formed alliance with the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kalakam party, or AIADMK), Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Nagaland, Rajasthan, and Chattisgarh. The National Capital Territory, Delhi, and the union territory of Pondicherry also are ruled by the Congress Party.

But Vijay Kumar Malhotra, senior BJP lawmaker and party spokesman, downplayed the impact of the recent polls on the ruling coalition, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

"I do not think that the election results have any impact on the central government," he said. "The NDA is formed of different parties in Parliament. As far as the BJP is concerned, the number of seats they have in the state assemblies have increased. However, the regional parties with which the BJP formed an alliance have failed to perform well. But this will not affect the togetherness of the NDA allies."

Malhotra insisted that "almost all NDA allies have expressed their faith in Prime Minister [Atal Bihari] Vajpayee, and the BJP is sure that he will be able to hold the allies and government together. This government will definitely complete five years." The next national elections are scheduled for 2004.

But many Indian political analysts believe BJP defeats in Tamil Nadu and Assam, in particular, were a setback to the party.

The national daily, The Hindu, said in a recent editorial that although the BJP is not a dominant player in those states, "there can be no denying that the national coalition as a whole has suffered a terrible loss of face, given that its key allies heading governments in Tamil Nadu and Assam — and on whom it was riding piggyback — have met with disaster at the hustings."

Ambika Soni, general secretary of the All India Congress Committee, claimed that "even Prime Minister Vajpayee does not doubt the fact that the verdict was against his government." Soni noted that the BJP ran for more than 400 seats in the four states it lost. In Kerala, where it failed to win a single seat, the party fielded 130 candidates for 140 seats.

The BJP also has lost the three by-elections held for seats in the Lok Sabha, the Lower House of Parliament. In Uttar Pradesh, the BJP came in fourth as the Samajwadi Party defeated its nearest rival, a Congress Party candidate. In West Bengal, a seat that belonged to the Communist Party of India (CPI) was retained, and a third seat in Tamil Nadu that belonged to the BJP was lost to AIADMK.

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June (Web-only) 2001, Vol. 45