AMN / NEW DELHI

Prime Minister Narendra Modi today congratulated the Congress party for its victory in Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and even Madhya Pradesh, where both the BJP and the Congress are neck-in-neck, before the results were officially announced.

It’s anyone’s game in Madhya Pradesh now as both the parties are locked in a battle of prestige, with wafer-thin margins between candidates. If the Congress sees off the last-minute scare, it will a trifecta of wins in the heartland of India, having already comfortably bagged Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh.

With the sudden slump in electoral fortunes of the BJP, 2019 is no longer a walkover for Narendra Modi and Amit Shah. The result is a fresh lease of life for the Congress which now has a stronger claim to leadership in the proposed grand alliance of non-BJP parties in 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

In Telangana, however, the party’s alliance with Chandrababu Naidu’s TDP has failed to dent K Chandrashekar Rao’s Telangana Rashtra Samiti which is zooming towards a thumping return to power. It’s a vindication for KCR who had called snap polls to capitalise on interim popularity. In Mizoram, the ruling Congress has lost out to Mizo National Front with CM Lal Thanhawla trailing.