Many commentators have described the NDA government's defeat as the rejection of the economic reforms. This is nonsense. The Congress had not only pioneered the reforms, it has also promised to carry them forward in its poll manifesto. To quote just two key sentences from the manifesto: "The Congress will broaden and deepen economic reforms. The overriding objective will be to attain and sustain year after year a 8-10 per cent rate of economic growth...."
Moreover, the results point to a strong anti-incumbency rather than anti-reform vote. Rajasthan, MP and Chhattisgarh, which had fallen from the Congress to the BJP in an anti-incumbency...

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