Jharkhand: The BJP has to resolve key dilemmas - Hindustan Times
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Jharkhand: The BJP has to resolve key dilemmas

BySmita Mishra
Dec 24, 2019 07:36 PM IST

It has to decide on the degree of autonomy for CMs, role of allies, and find a way to reconcile Shah’s dual role

Jharkhand has spoken. As a new coalition prepares to take oath in Ranchi, the Narendra Modi-Amit Shah leadership at the Centre will have to ponder about the import and meaning of the results before the party starts preparations in earnest for the upcoming Delhi elections. The Bharatiya Janata Party won 25 seats, even as the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha-Congress-Rashtriya Janata Dal pre-poll alliance won 47 seats, almost double, in the 81-member assembly.

The BJP has a fairly good record of empowering CMs, but that cannot replace a culture of ‘taking everyone together’(Hindustan Times)
The BJP has a fairly good record of empowering CMs, but that cannot replace a culture of ‘taking everyone together’(Hindustan Times)

There are several reasons for the BJP’s reverses, anti-incumbency being just the widest term to describe it. But this is also an opportune moment to take stock of the BJP’s politics post-May 2019. There can be no two views that the Modi regime, in its current avatar, is far more aggressive towards its ideological agenda than in the previous term, when it was focused more on social welfare, infrastructure and administrative reforms. This was coupled with a relentless focus on expanding the BJP organisation, both geographically and socially.

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This is where the Centre may face its first big challenge now. The lesser are the number of states with a BJP chief minister, the tougher will the implementation of central schemes, which played a huge role in catapulting the party to 303 seats on its own. This is also true of the ideological front. The negative response of non-BJP chief ministers vis-à-vis BJP’s agenda is apparent, as their opposition to the Citizenship (Amendment) Act has shown.

In fact, the reverses have emboldened even National Democratic Alliance (NDA) chief ministers to flex their muscles. One should not be surprised if these alliance partners raise their rhetoric in the coming days, as the BJP’s high pitch on ideology makes them more jittery.

So with state capitals falling into the Opposition’s hands and troubles within the alliance emerging, is it all bad news for the party in the coming days? No.

The recent aggression and pace displayed by the Centre in ticking off the agenda boxes has infused new energy, and brought together the ideological parivar like never before. Added to that is the renewed commitment to fight the opponents, come what may.

This may not reap dividends immediately but would “keep the faith” of the supporters who often drift away over bread and butter issues. The party will utilise the time to further consolidate politically, even as it tries to get the economy back on track.

Organisationally, there has been substantive commentary about the over-dependence of chief ministers on Modi and his campaign. But that might be a generic assessment of things. The real challenge for the party, organisationally speaking, is how much autonomy to allow the CMs. While a chief minister is the best judge on how to lead his state, the fact that some CMs have begun fancying themselves as Modi and Shah is now being openly discussed in party circles.

The BJP has a fairly good record of empowering CMs, but that cannot replace a culture of “taking everyone together”. This is in reference to the choice of tickets, sidelining or ignoring senior, respected people, and generally overlooking the karyakarta, the committed party worker. These factors came into play in Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Jharkhand and even Chhattisgarh.

The proverbial silver lining in these reverses is that the BJP has lost power in Mumbai and Ranchi even before completing its first year of the second term. This gives the party sufficient time to pause and ponder which issues to press upon hard, and which to put on the back-burner. The party will also have take a call on whether to engage with allies more deeply, or chart its own course in a phased manner.

While these issues make take time to get resolved, one thing that the party is definitely realising after the recent assembly polls is the after-effect of its president, Amit Shah, shifting to North Block. No matter how engaged the leader is, the fact that Shah has less time to micromanage elections (from the headquarter to the booth level) is certainly beginning to reflect negatively on electoral results. But the firepower he brings to the government is again irreplaceable. Finding a balanced solution to this may be the toughest job right now, as Delhi and Bihar loom large on the horizon.

Smita Mishra is a political journalist and currently an adviser with Prasar Bharati
The views expressed are personal
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