The most significant message emanating out of the rough and tumble of the general election is that the Indian electorate in its collective wisdom has endorsed a two-party system to dominate the country's political scene. By the time the dust settles down and the din dies, the real import of the current elections will stand out to be a strong desire of the people to clear the canvas of the political riff-raff. The voters in almost every part of the country have disapproved of a scene cluttered with multiple choices and made it clear that their preferences would largely swing between the two major poles.

The people have taken this stunningly seminal decision primarily in the context of their respective states. If the voting patterns are any indication, the electorate has identified the two major contenders and confined their preferences to this either-or option edging out the smaller and weaker players in the field.

In certain cases, perhaps getting wind of the new exclusive, scrutinizing attitude of the electorate, the political parties had already made strategic local alliances. The BJP has reached the threshold of power ... because of the crucial pre-poll alliances it had struck. The party's own growth seems to have hit a plateau with a less than 10% increase of its seats tally. The Congress on the other hand has stopped miles away from Raisina Hill chiefly because of its inability to win important allies in the states. In the only state where the party succeeded in  roping in friends, it has posted spectacular results. Indeed the experiment in Maharashtra where alliances with the Republican Party and Samajwadi Party have paid rich dividends - is going to be a model for the Congress wherever it fights elections in the coming days. These poll tie-ups have proved mutually beneficial to the extent they complemented both partners ... The Indian voters -wiser by experience and tired of the crowd and cacophony on the scene - set out on a corrective mission telling and teaching the politician how to make adjustments to the new need. The haze on the horizon, he decided, has to be cleared.

This is an entirely new phenomenon and quite unlike anything that has happened in the past. The golden Congress era of one-party domination continued till the end of the eighties except for the two-and-a-half-years of the Morarji Desai Govt. There is no doubt that if the present trends continue the country will have a two-party system - more clearly at the state level to begin with.

In this bipolar scenario, a clear choice is now available .. between a robust conservative party heading a group of important allies with their own base and appeal in different parts of the country, and a liberal-democratic platform recognised by strong regional and left-of-centre forces as a proper counterfoil to the newly revived conservatism.

The two major blocks - the BJP and Congress – have shifted their positions - either as a matter of strategy or in recognition of the new reality - and shed much of their past prejudices ... The BJP had consciously made an effort before the elections to dilute its Hindu revivalist image. The party moved away from its Hindutva agenda ...

Propelled by the ambition to capture power at the Centre the party ... decided to project a softer and more moderate face - as much in the genial face of A.B Vajpayee as in announcing its new priorities. The party's detractors called the whole exercise a sham, a mask hiding an essentially intolerant face ..

The Congress too made an attempt to remove its past ambivalence on issues like Ayodhya and its commitment to the underprivileged. If the BJP's journey has been from the far-right to the centre, the Congress has turned a little leftward ... In the future electoral scenario, these two forces - Indian counterparts of a conservative party and a liberal-democratic outfit with a lurch to the left – are likely to play the pivots. The smaller players are likely to come to be consigned to the fringes.                                                          (Sources The Times of India, 8 March, 1998)

 BJP: Government Formation in U.P.

*  Defectors from Congress/Congress(T)/BSP/JD/SP/SJP, apart from Independents.

**  2 LC and 1 Independent separated from BJP later.

***  1 MLA died.