THE political and constitutional crisis that gripped the south Indian state of Karnataka after an inconclusive election seems to be over. In the election held on May 12, neither the ruling Congress party nor the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) could win absolute majority in the 224-member house. But both the BJP which emerged as the largest single block and the Congress, which entered into an alliance with a regional party after the results were out, staked claim to form the government. The New Delhi-appointed governor, ignoring the claims of Congress and its ally, invited BJP’s B.S. Yeddyurappa to form the ministry but he had to resign 55 hours after he was sworn in because he could not prove his majority on the floor of the house.

The dramatic developments since Tuesday once again showed how utterly contemptuous the BJP, which is in power at the center, is of the institutions of democracy. This also overshadowed the most significant aspect of the Karnataka results: That BJP which is derided as a north Indian party could rise its tally from 40 in 2013 to 104 in a southern state long ruled by the Congress. This suggests that Prime Minister Narendra Modi continues to retain his charisma even though his administration is widely seen as inefficient and incompetent.

The results also showed the big gap between Modi and the Congress leader Rahul Gandhi when it comes to popular appeal. Karnataka, the last big Congress redoubt, was a major test for Gandhi after he took over his party’s leadership. He failed. Congress which won 122 seats in 2013 had to contend with 78 this time. This means Gandhi is still no match for Modi as a popular leader or vote catcher, though he has become much more aggressive in his political outreach. True, he won applause and admiration for the campaign he ran for the Gujarat elections but somehow or other an ability to excite the voters seems to be eluding him.

Karnataka results show, as did the earlier one in Gujarat and Punjab, that the field is now wide open and BJP cannot take victory in the 2019 parliamentary elections for granted. Another lesson is that regional parties will have a significant impact on the make-up of the next Parliament. Even in Karnataka where the fight was between the Congress and BJP, it was a regional party, Janata Dal (Secular), that denied both the major parties the victory they sought. This indicates that if Congress had gone into an alliance with the JD(S) before the polls, the picture would have been different. But Gandhi, in his campaign speeches, attacked the JD(S) more than the BJP, though he rushed to forge an alliance with that party after the results were announced. The Congress made the same mistake in Bihar where it was unwilling to accept the dominance of a regional party, Rashtriya Janata Dal, led by Lalu Prasad Yadav. Right kind of electoral alliances can change the picture in Uttar Pradesh too, the state which elects the largest number of MPs (80), where 39 percent vote share of BJP would be no match to the combined vote share of Bahujan Samaj Party, Samajwadi Party and Congress at over 50 percent. Rahul Gandhi should remember how a combined opposition united under the banner of “Janata Party” routed the Congress and defeated Indira Gandhi in the general elections held after the lifting of the Emergency in 1977.

Both in Gujarat and in Karnataka, Rahul Gandhi went out of his way to showcase his Hindu identity, visiting Hindu temples and religious centers. This was an attempt to beat the BJP at its own game. If the Congress shows an inclination to embrace “Hindutva” though in a mild form, that will be giving legitimacy and credibility to the BJP’s core ideology. This is playing into the hands of the BJP while alienating minorities.