**Bhubaneswar: ** Despite high voltage election campaign by both Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP national president Amit Shah and BJP bigwigs as well as Congress president Rahul Gandhi and his mother Sonia Gandhi (former Congress chief), regional parties like Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) in Telangana and Mizo National Front (MNF) in Mizoram have stolen the march by relegating both the national parties (BJP and Congress) to the back burner.
Going by the Telangana and Mizoram assembly poll results, all eyes are now on Odisha’s ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) led by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.
As BJD-led by Naveen Patnaik has been retaining power in Odisha for the consecutively four tenures since 2000 and even amid the Modi magic sweeping nationwide in 2014 general polls, all are agog to see if the regional party BJD will repeat its victory march for the fifth consecutive stint in the 2019 general polls.
According to the results, regional party Mizo National Front (MNF) unseated the Congress in Mizoram. It is the only state in the northeast where the Congress was ruling. The MNF retained power after a decade. Mizoram (Congress) Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla trailed in both the constituencies he contested and bit the dust.
Similarly, the Congress-led alliance in Telangana suffered a major blow as the ruling TRS got a consecutive second five-year term with a landslide victory. TRS nominees took solid leads in most of the 119 constituencies crushing the opposition Congress-led People’s Front.
Riding on Telangana pride and its welfare schemes, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) headed towards a landslide victory in the Assembly election while the Congress-led People’s Front lagged much behind.
Telangana people seem to have dismissed the alliance between the Congress and the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) as the four-party People’s Front headed for a drubbing. Even the Telangana voters could not repose faith in BJP.
In his media reactions, senior BJD MLA Arun Sahoo said, “Regional party winning in Telangana is a good sign. Public support for the regional parties is increasing in various States of India. Regional parties have won in Mizoram and Telangana. Thus, the influence of regional parties is going up.”
“As Biju Janata Dal (BJD) is Odisha’s party, its influence is rising. This has been observed from time to time by the several surveys aired on TV channels. All surveys have shown that public support is largely increasing in favour of our Hon’ble Chief Minister and obviously for our party BJD,” he remarked.
Another senior BJD MLA Sanjay Das Burma said, “Going by the people’s mandate today, the people’s support for the regional parties has risen. The people of Odisha exhibit their best judgement as it has been and being reflected in each election here in the State in favour of India’s most popular Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.”
(With inputs from IANS)
**Also Read:** [MNF Wins Mizoram, Congress’ Last Northeast State](https://www.ommcomnews.com/india-news/mnf-wins-mizoram-congress-last-northeast-state)
**Also Read:** [Odisha: Victory Celebration Adorns Congress Bhavan, Party Workers Jubilant](https://www.ommcomnews.com/odisha-news/odisha-victory-celebration-adorns-congress-bhavan-party-workers-jubilant)