An unambiguous message to the BJP from the state elections: It’s time for you to go.

The Congress party has much to celebrate in the five state election results that came on Tuesday. There were resounding victories in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, and a clear, if close, win in Madhya Pradesh. Telangana and Mizoram were defeats, but not entirely unexpected. On the whole, the electorate has sent an unambiguous message to the BJP: It’s time for you to go.

There were common themes everywhere: The people are hurting after four and a half years of misconceived policies, airy speechmaking and failed delivery. Political rhetoric has not matched prosaic reality. Farmers are in real distress, jobs are not available for the young, the economy has stalled. Achhe din is nowhere in sight.

The big trends are clear. The voters are tired of failed promises and jumlas. There is no point doctoring statistics and manipulating GDP numbers if people know in their own lives that they are doing badly. PR can only take you so far. Those who bought into Modi’s oratorical salesmanship have realised they have bought an empty package. They’re not going to keep buying it.

Farmers

Take a look at the real issues that mattered to voters in the three Hindi heartland states. A staggering 75 per cent of Rajasthan’s population is rural and more than half (53 per cent) of all households in Rajasthan own agricultural land. An estimated 90 per cent have not received MSP for their crops. While the Congress-governed Punjab ensured 84 per cent procurement, the BJP government in Rajasthan is the worst performer with only 4 per cent wheat procured by the government. In Madhya Pradesh, where agriculture employs nearly 70 per cent of the workforce, procurement prices for onions and pulses have collapsed and some 46 per cent of agrarian households are debt ridden.

According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), 21,000 farmers committed suicide in Madhya Pradesh in the past 16 years, of which the BJP has been in power in the state for over 14. While farm suicides dropped by 10 per cent elsewhere in the country in two years to 2016, MP saw a 21per cent jump. More than 1,900 farmers and farm labourers committed suicide in the state between February 2016 and February 2017. Similarly, about 13,000 farmers have committed suicide in Chhattisgarh under the BJP government.

Jobs

Unemployment remains another key issue. Some 55 per cent of Rajasthan’s https://theprint.in/opinion/modi-voters-know-they-bought-an-empty-package-they-wont-keep-buying-it-s