[The final counts showed that the B.J.P. had secured 47 of 90
seats in the northern state of Haryana, allowing the party to form a state government
without building a coalition. This is remarkable because it has traditionally
had little support in the heavily agricultural state, having secured only four
seats in Haryana’s previous state assembly.]
By Ellen Barry
 |
Supporters of the Bharatiya Janata Party celebrated as early
results indicated a lead in Maharashtra State.
Credit Rafiq Maqbool/Associated Press
|
NEW DELHI — Prime MinisterNarendra
Modi’s party won the largest number of seats in two important state
elections where votes were counted on Sunday, substantially expanding the
Bharatiya Janata Party’s territory and opening the door to future control of
the upper house of Parliament.
The strong showing could largely be attributed to Mr. Modi
himself, who served as the face of the party’s campaign — a departure from
tradition in state campaigns, which usually center on local issues and the
personality of the candidate for chief minister.
The Indian National Congress, still staggering from its crushing
loss in the general election in May, placed a distant third in Maharashtra and
Haryana, both states it has controlled for at least a decade.
Amit Shah, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s president and Mr. Modi’s
main electoral strategist, was exultant on Sunday, telling reporters at a news
conference that the results were “two more steps forward in our campaign to
achieve a Congress-free India.”
The final counts showed that the B.J.P. had secured 47 of 90
seats in the northern state of Haryana, allowing the party to form a state government
without building a coalition. This is remarkable because it has traditionally
had little support in the heavily agricultural state, having secured only four
seats in Haryana’s previous state assembly.
The party’s victory on Sunday was not complete: Its leaders had
hoped for a majority in Maharashtra, too, but fell short of that, with 122 of
the state’s 288 assembly seats. On Sunday the party made overtures toward its
traditional partner, the Shiv Sena, which had split forces ahead of the
election.
Constrained in his ability to push through legislation, Mr. Modi
has been intensely focused on gaining a foothold in the upper house of
Parliament, which will see substantial turnover in 2016. Together, Maharashtra
and Haryana send 24 representatives to the upper house. The B.J.P. holds just
two seats from Maharashtra and none from Haryana.
The party has saturated Maharashtra with a glossy campaign of
print, television and social media advertisements, most of them focusing on Mr.
Modi.
Gayatri Balani, a jewelry designer, said her whole family backed
Mr. Modi because they see him as capable of reining in the country’s
bureaucrats, who are widely viewed as corrupt and indolent. “Fear is the only
thing that can bring discipline to people in government who have never ever
heard of discipline,” she said. “I hear officials in Delhi are actually showing
up to their offices on time, which is unheard-of.”
She said she voted for the B.J.P. because she was “sick of
things not working.” But some expressed frustration with the focus on Mr. Modi.
Mohammad Rafi Elahi, a Mumbai tailor, said the issues that mattered to him were
close to home, like the efficient supply of power and water.
He said that in his neighborhood, “there are no toilets here for
poor people,” forcing local residents to send workers to urinate and defecate
on the rocks by the sea.
“This election is about local issues,” he said, ones decided by
local officials, not the prime minister. “Modi, Modi, Modi. Especially on TV,
that’s all you hear. What’s wrong with you media people that you keep going on
about this man? Tell me one thing he has done.”
Max Bearak
contributed reporting from Mumbai, India.
HOPES WANE FOR FINDING MISSING TREKKERS IN NEPAL
[But the army issued a statement on Saturday evening saying that
rescue operations would continue on Sunday, largely to search for missing
trekkers at Thorong La, a pass on the Annapurna Circuit where rescuers have
said the most people were reported to be.]
NEW
DELHI — Rescue operations in Nepal’s
Himalayas moved to more remote outposts on Saturday as hopes for finding more
than a dozen missing trekkers alive began to wane several days after an intense
snowstorm and avalanches.
An
official in the Dolpa district, bordering Mustang, said that two helicopters
were heading to the district to rescue trekkers reported to be trapped there on
Saturday morning.
Krishna
Prasad Khanal, the chief district officer of Dolpa, said later that the
military had rescued 17 trekkers from the Chharka area of the district on
Saturday. Two Swiss trekkers and a Nepali guide had been rescued by a privately
hired helicopter elsewhere in Dolpa on Saturday.
Suresh
Acharya, a joint secretary of Nepal’s Tourism Ministry, said on Saturday that
the death toll had reached 39. District officials would not confirm that
number.
Officials
disagreed about whether the rescue operation had crested and efforts should
turn to recovering dead bodies.
Mr.
Acharya indicated that the rescue operations might be nearing an end. He said
that 19 people were still missing in the Annapurna Circuit area, but the Trekking Agencies’ Association of Nepal estimated that about 30
people were unaccounted for.
“The
chance of rescuing the missing 19 people is less than 5 percent,” said Mr.
Acharya, who was assigned to coordinate the search and rescue operation on
behalf of the Tourism Ministry.
“Rescuers
have cleared most of areas,” he said. “The picture will be clear by tomorrow,
and we will decide on what to do.”
But the
army issued a statement on Saturday evening saying that rescue operations would
continue on Sunday, largely to search for missing trekkers at Thorong La, a
pass on the Annapurna Circuit where rescuers have said the most people were
reported to be.
“We have
received information that few trekkers are still missing at Thorong La pass,
and we sent a helicopter for search and rescue today,” the army said in the
statement, adding that the helicopter was unable to land because of the snow.
By Mr.
Acharya’s calculation, only two people were missing in Thorong La pass in the
Mustang district, and were presumed dead.
Three
Swiss trekkers rescued on Friday and Saturday had decided against taking the
typical Annapurna trek, instead opting for the wilder, less-traveled area in
Dolpa bordering the Annapurna Circuit. Early in the rescue operation, Dolpa had
been virtually ignored as rescuers focused on the more heavily traveled Thorong
La.
The Swiss
group, along with about a dozen Nepali staff members, had also been hit by an
avalanche during Tuesday’s storm that buried their guide and eight porters, who
they said had died. Alfred Lerch, 53, moved down from the plateau on Wednesday
to seek help for his brother, who had a broken leg, and another companion,
whose tent had been buried under the snow. Mr. Lerch reached a camp of other
tourists and their porters some distance down, and was picked up on Friday by a
private helicopter hired by a trekking company to rescue its own clients.
Mr. Lerch
informed the Swiss Embassy about his brother and his companion, who were
rescued by helicopter on Saturday, they said.
Nida
Najar reported from New Delhi, and Bhadra Sharma from Katmandu. Rajneesh
Bhandari contributed reporting from Katmandu.
