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BJP on firm ground as assembly poll losses in Hindi belt expose Opposition faultlines
Despite the Congress’s win in southern Telangana, all eyes now would be on whether key players like Samajwadi Party turn up at the New Delhi meet of the opposition bloc on December 6.
Even before the trends firmed up decisively in favour of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Hindi belt states, the Congress and Samajwadi Party spokespersons began targeting each other in routine news channel debates on the counting day.
The verbal volleys made it evident that Sunday’s embarrassing defeats exposed traditional faultlines among ideologically opposed parties that have come together ostensibly to stop the BJP from scoring a hattrick of wins at the Centre in 2024.
Despite the Congress’s win in southern Telangana, all eyes now would be on whether key players like Samajwadi Party turn up at the New Delhi meet of the opposition bloc on December 6.
Even if they do, much focus would be on if the SP leaders, along with those of its ally Rashtriya Lok Dal, upset at being sidelined in states where the Congress was politically better placed than them, would be extending the same treatment to the Congress in Uttar Pradesh, where the party has been out of power since 1989.
More important, barring Bihar and Himachal, the BJP controls all other states in Hindi belt now.
Ahead of April-May Lok Sabha polls, ‘Brand Modi’ has emerged even more powerful, since the party went into the polls without projecting a chief ministerial face and solely on “Modi ki guarantee (Modi’s guarantee)”.
Political experts agree that the triple triumph means that the BJP could now breathe a little easy on the issue of caste census, over which nearly the whole opposition, including many BJP allies, are unanimous.
The Congress, too, had gone into the polls by promising to implement the caste census if it came to power and hitting out at the BJP for not considering it.
“The BJP’s decisive win now means that ‘Brand Modi’ prevailed over issues like caste census and so, the party which has been rather circumspect on the emotive subject can now breathe easy on the subject,” said AP Tiwari, a political expert.
Nearly all top BJP leaders, including chief minister Yogi Adityanath who himself ran a whirlwind campaign across all poll-bound states, as well as deputy chief ministers Keshav Prasad Maurya and Brajesh Pathak, hailed “Modi”.
The opposition bloc would also need to reassess its strategy of playing up religious issues that are tailored to keep OBCs and Dalits interested but, as the results showed, didn’t find favor with the electorate.
“Sanatan ka virodh hamein le dooba (the curse of sanatan led to doom),” said Congress leader Pramod Krishnam as he demanded that all those leaders who “abused Sanatan” be shown the door. “If that isn’t done, the Congress would be reduced to being a party like AIMIM,” Krishnam added.
Samajwadi Party general secretary Swami Prasad Maurya, too, has been consistently flagging religious issues, dubbing several Hindu practices as “anti-backward”. Many within the SP, too, are dismissive of Maurya’s ploy to take on the BJP.
Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Ajay Rai, however, played down the differences in opposition bloc.
“The opposition bloc is for Lok Sabha polls and we all are committed to keeping the BJP out,” Rai said.
However, RLD spokesman Anil Dubey said, “Had the opposition bloc been united for assembly polls too, the results would have been different.”
For his part, SP spokesperson Fakhrul Hasan Chand said: “It was the Akhilesh-Wakhilesh statement of Congress leader Kamal Nath that soured things.”
While the opposition has got a lot on its hands now, the BJP has already begun work for 2024 polls.
U.P. BJP general secretary (organisation) Dharampal Singh on Sunday tasked cadres to ensure connect with beneficiaries of various government initiatives and to popularise “schemes” of the double engine BJP government even more.
Unlike the opposition bloc, all BJP allies in Uttar Pradesh — from Union minister Anupriya Patel who heads Apna Dal (S), to fisheries minister and Nishad Party chief Sanjay Nishad and Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party chief Om Prakash Rajbhar — have hailed the “Modi factor”.
“We are a party that works 24x7 and all 365 days. That is why we are never tired and always battle-ready,” said U.P. BJP chief Bhupendra Chaudhary as he credited PM Modi while listing out the various initiatives identified by the party in the run-up to the 2024 Lok Sabha polls as proof of “BJP’s discipline and focus.”
Contrasting scenes at the party offices of the BJP and the Congress in U.P. said it all. While the Congress office wore a deserted look, celebrations were underway at the U.P. BJP office with cadres raising “Modi-Yogi” chants.
