The success of BJP and the lesson for the opposition
- The People's Chronicle Editorial :: December 05, 2023 -

The resounding success of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the state assembly elections in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh has once again proved that the popularity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is still intact on the ground and the "Modi-magic" is here to stay in the country for a long time to come.

Despite lacking charismatic and widely accepted leaders in the respective state units of the party in these poll-bound states, the saffron party went ahead to fight the elections by projecting Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the face of BJP, showing him as an emerging global leader who can elevate India's position at the global stage, and the gamble paid off big time.

In fact, the results of the assembly elections in these three large and important states in northern India, which are collectively called the Hindi belt or heartland, have exceeded the expectations of BJP leaders themselves.

Contrary to the predictions made in many exit polls, BJP has easily wrested power from the incumbent Congress party in Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, while retaining Madhya Pradesh for the fifth term by beating the much talked about anti-incumbency factors.

Even in Telangana, where a three-way electoral battle was witnessed and the Congress party is now all set to form the next state government after the voters have shown the door to Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and his over nine-year rule of Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) in the youngest Indian state, BJP has emerged as the dark horse with unprecedented gains this time by winning a total of seven seats, as against one seat in the last assembly elections.

For a political party which has always faced challenges in the south, this is no mean achievement for the saffron party.

This achievement has indicated that after strengthening its foothold in the Hindi heartland, the saffron party may as well become a force to be reckoned with in the southern part of the country in the Parliamentary election due next year.

Apart from the popularity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has undoubtedly demonstrated that he could single-handedly lead his party to success in the assembly elections by travelling and campaigning extensively across the poll-bound states till the last minute, political analysts have listed effective booth-level strategy and strong organisational manoeuvre, which the opposition Congress party and its alliance INDIA (Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance) obviously lack, as main factors for the ever increasing dominance of BJP in the political landscape of India.

With its latest electoral victories in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, the saffron party is now going to expand its political dominance further by ruling in 12 of the 28 states in India on its own.

BjP is currently in power in Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Manipur, Tripura, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh while it is in a ruling coalition in four other states namely, Maharashtra, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Sikkim.

With the increasing dominance of BjP, Congress party, which used to govern the country for nearly sixty years, will now be in power only in three states, namely, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka and Telangana.

Of course, Congress party is still part of the ruling coalition in Bihar and Jharkhand and is an ally of the DMK which rules Tamil Nadu although it is not a part of the state government.

Nonetheless, in the light of the emerging political scenario in the country, the grand old party and its alliance INDIA definitely need to do some serious soul searching to find out where they got wrong instead of drawing out knives and blaming each other for the electoral debacle.

For a democracy to thrive, a strong opposition who can speak up for people's rights and issues is even more important than a stronger government.