India's prime minister, Mr. Atal Bihari Vajpayee, insists that the results of last week's state elections are of no concern to his government. Technically speaking, he is right; the vote was for 823 seats in local legislatures in five states. But while voting for state candidates, Indians sent a message to the prime minister nonetheless. They are unhappy with government policies; that means trouble for Mr. Vajpayee's reform proposals.
Opposition parties claimed victory in each of the five state legislatures. Mr. Vajpayee's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party won only a smattering of seats. The big winner was the Congress party, which secured victories in two states, will form a government in a third and is a member of the winning coalition in the fourth. Congress will now be part of the government in 12 of India's 29 states.
The election results have made Ms. Sonia Gandhi, the Congress party head, one of the most powerful politicians in India. Once derided as a foreign interloper exploiting her late husband's family name, Ms. Gandhi resurrected a party that had reached its nadir in general elections nearly two years ago.
The other big winner was former actress Jayaram Jayalalitha, who won a landslide victory in the state of Tamil Nadu, despite having been convicted of corruption charges. Ms. Jayalalitha beat a key ally of Mr. Vajpayee's, and was sworn in as chief minister of the state the next day.
The election results are a blow to Mr. Vajpayee. Coming shortly after a corruption scandal that caused the resignation of the defense minister and the president of the BJP, the prime minister looks more vulnerable and more dependent on his coalition partners. Some of them oppose his economic reform measures, others favor increasingly militant Hinduism. Neither will help the prime minister or India as a whole.