The decisive verdict in Jharkhand and impressive gains in Jammu and Kashmir have strengthened the national character of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which now has a firm grip on the country’s polity, effectively toppling the Congress as the leading political force.
The BJP has won almost every Assembly elections after it lost power in Karnataka in May 2013. There has been no looking back for the party since then as it has formed governments in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh in the first round of Assembly polls ahead of the general elections in May 2014. The party could not form the government in Delhi despite being the single largest party.
There has been no looking back for the party since then as it has formed governments in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh in the first round of Assembly polls ahead of the general elections in May 2014. The party could not form the government in Delhi despite being the single largest party.
The massive victory in the Lok Sabha elections again proved that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s prominence was unassailable. The BJP then added Maharashtra and Haryana in its kitty after the Lok Sabha polls. Jharkhand will become the latest state to get a BJP chief minister.
The BJP will now have eight chief ministers from Haryana to Maharashtra, capturing the vast expanses of northern, central and western India. It has allies ruling in Punjab and Andhra Pradesh.
The BJP sees the poll victories as a verdict on Modi’s agenda of development. “The poll verdict is a lesson for those who oppose our government’s agenda of development and change. As the BJP won Jharkhand, it will also win polls in Bihar under the leadership of PM Narendra Modi,” BJP national president Amit Shah had said after the results on Tuesday.
The performance has galvanised the party and its young leadership. “I feel that under the leadership of PM Narendra Modi and due to his good governance and with the great contribution of national president Amit Shah ji, the party has done remarkable… We will face Delhi and then in Bihar where the results will be in the favour of the BJP,” party leader Rajiv Pratap Rudy said after the election outcome on Tuesday.
The BJP’s next battleground will be Delhi and Bihar where elections are due. The party is likely to face a tough challenge from the Janata Parivar in Bihar, but the party hopes that Modi’s charisma will work in the state as well to demolish the challenge posed by Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad.
In Delhi, the saffron party is confident of countering the threat posed by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).
The biggest challenge for the party is in Uttar Pradesh, which it looks to capture from the Samajwadi Party. The BJP has already started ground work in the state where it made impressive gains during the Lok Sabha elections with a near clean sweep.
The saffron march was halted in the north at the Pir Panjal range as it got decimated in the Kashmir Valley despite sweeping the Jammu region. The BJP’s Mission 44+ in Jammu and Kashmir has fallen short, but it will play the role of a kingmaker.
Party sources said its control over much of north, western and central India is complete. It will then move to the east to directly challenge Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress before making inroads into the southern states.
The country’s political map is being painted saffron and if the BJP under Amit Shah continues its march, it will annihilate the little challenge still posed by the Congress.
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