Morning Digest | BJP retains 4 States, AAP scores landslide in Punjab; Moscow may engage in false flag chemical, biological attacks in Ukraine, says White House; and more

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BJP retains 4 States; AAP scores landslide in Punjab 

The BJP retained power in four of the five States that went to polls, while the Congress lost Punjab to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). The AAP said it has emerged as the “natural, national” alternative to the BJP, even as the Congress declined to a new low.

The BJP held on to power in Uttar Pradesh, where it won two-thirds of the seats, compared to three-fourths in 2017. Its vote share increased in U.P., Goa and Manipur. The party conclusively won Uttarakhand and won enough seats to retain power in Manipur and Goa — three States where its main rival was the Congress.

No wilting heat of farmers’ rage

After attracting thousands of farmers from Punjab and Uttar Pradesh to join a year-long agitation, farm union leaders were largely unable to leverage that mass support to tilt the results in the Assembly polls. 

In Punjab, the union leaders who fought the elections are set to lose their deposits. In U.P., where the wider Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) platform campaigned against the BJP and called for its ouster, leaders claimed that farmers across the State voted along caste and communal lines.

Supersonic projectile from India entered our airspace: Pakistan