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Updated: Dec 28, 2018 19:54 IST

The Congress’s win in three heartland states ruled by the BJP is a victory against the ruling party’s negative politics, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi said on Wednesday, her comeback to the many attacks hurled at her during election campaigning by top BJP leaders.

“I am happy with 3-0 score line... It is a victory against BJP’s negative politics,” Sonia Gandhi told reporters outside Parliament after results to five state elections were declared.

The Congress was edged out of Mizoram and didn’t make an impact in Telangana despite a grand alliance with Chandrababu Naidu’s TDP and other parties. But in the three politically-crucial BJP states, the Congress is set to form a government.

The Congress was a clear winner in Chhattisgarh state, and fell one seat short of a majority in both Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. Two of them, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, had been ruled by the BJP for 15 years.

Also Read: Congress lays 2014 ghost to rest, sets up grand finale

The victories are seen as a sign of a turnaround of the political fortunes of the Congress under Rahul Gandhi, who took over as party president from his mother, Sonia Gandhi, and a stinging rejoinder to his critics that he could not lead the party’s revival.

It is a point that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah repeatedly underlined in their election speeches, listing all the state elections that had taken place after 2014 and how the BJP had won most of them.

Also Read: The Congress’ rebound is impressive

Gandhi has been leading from the front ever since he was named Congress president on December 11, 2017. Days before his elevation, he launched a spirited campaign in Gujarat where the party threw a tough challenge to the BJP. Though the BJP won the elections, the Congress managed to restore some pride in the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his trusted lieutenant, Amit Shah.

Later in Karnataka, Gandhi had led the election campaign in Karnataka where the party moved quickly to form a post-poll alliance with HD Kumaraswamy’s Janata Dal Secular and let the smaller partner take the chief minister’s chair.

Observers contend that he still faces the challenge of reviving the Congress in key states such as Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Odisha and West Bengal, where it has lost its political space.

Some of this might have to wait till after the 2019 elections, given how Gandhi is going to focus on firming up state-specific alliances to prevent division of the opposition vote.

Click here, for overall coverage on assembly elections results.

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