Setback for brand Modi
17 Sept 2014 5:34 AM IST
Just a few days back addressing an election rally in Jharkhand, party president Amit Shah had said that he would not announce a chief ministerial candidate and seek vote in the name of prime minister Narendra Modi in the upcoming state assembly polls.
However, in the just concluded elections of the Delhi University Students Union (DUSU), which BJP affiliate Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) swept, the BJP leaders were quick to claim that prime minister Narendra Modi continued to mesmerise the voters.
Thus, the reverses suffered by the BJP in the assembly polls, including in the prime minister’s home state, Gujarat, will be showcased by his political rivals as a case of declining personal charisma on the part of Narendra Modi. There cannot be any other analysis of the results as leaving aside Rajasthan, the presence of Narendra Modi towered over everything else in these polls.
These poll results, third in the row, have maintained the trend of poor performance by BJP. First, they suffered a humiliating defeat in Uttarakhand, then in Bihar and now in several other states. Insiders have put the blame on the ‘corporatisation’ of the party, which has completely demotivated the workers at the grassroots, who want participation in governance. The Modi government has so far failed to harness their energy, which has led to lethargy in the party rank and file.
More importantly, the massive victory of the BJP in Lok Sabha polls has started a process of political realignment, which has fetched results for party’s rivals. In Bihar, adversaries Lalu Yadav and Nitish Kumar joined hands to handover defeat to BJP. In Uttar Pradesh, Mulayam Singh Yadav was indirectly helped by arch rival Mayawati. whose Bahujan Samaj Party kept away from polls and helped in consolidation of secular votes. In addition, BSP had helped Congress in Uttarakhand by keeping away from the polls.
While the Modi rivals are quick to blame the communal politics allegedly promoted by the BJP to polarise votes, there are reasons beyond ‘love jihad’, as mentioned earlier, which have hurt the ruling party. An aggressive push towards the Hinduvta agenda has been a face saver for the party, which gained a toehold in the West Bengal assembly after a gap of 15 years winning Basirhat seat though the margin of victory was just 1,500 votes.
The party suffered major losses in prime minister Modi’s backyard of Gujarat as well as in his protégé Amit Shah’s ‘karmabhoomi’, Uttar Pradesh. After the landslide victory in last assembly and Lok Sabha elections, BJP was expected to win the Vadodara Lok Sabha and nine assembly seats. But the Congress against the run of the play managed to snatch three. In Uttar Pradesh, where the party had won 73 out of 80 Lok Sabha seats in May, BJP managed to win just three out of 11.
Surprisingly enough, BJP could not even retain the Rohaniya seat neighbouring prime minister’s constituency, Varanasi. In Rajasthan, where the party had performed extraordinarily well during the assembly polls in December last year and Lok Sabha polls in May, it lost three of the four seats to
the Congress.
However, in the just concluded elections of the Delhi University Students Union (DUSU), which BJP affiliate Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) swept, the BJP leaders were quick to claim that prime minister Narendra Modi continued to mesmerise the voters.
Thus, the reverses suffered by the BJP in the assembly polls, including in the prime minister’s home state, Gujarat, will be showcased by his political rivals as a case of declining personal charisma on the part of Narendra Modi. There cannot be any other analysis of the results as leaving aside Rajasthan, the presence of Narendra Modi towered over everything else in these polls.
These poll results, third in the row, have maintained the trend of poor performance by BJP. First, they suffered a humiliating defeat in Uttarakhand, then in Bihar and now in several other states. Insiders have put the blame on the ‘corporatisation’ of the party, which has completely demotivated the workers at the grassroots, who want participation in governance. The Modi government has so far failed to harness their energy, which has led to lethargy in the party rank and file.
More importantly, the massive victory of the BJP in Lok Sabha polls has started a process of political realignment, which has fetched results for party’s rivals. In Bihar, adversaries Lalu Yadav and Nitish Kumar joined hands to handover defeat to BJP. In Uttar Pradesh, Mulayam Singh Yadav was indirectly helped by arch rival Mayawati. whose Bahujan Samaj Party kept away from polls and helped in consolidation of secular votes. In addition, BSP had helped Congress in Uttarakhand by keeping away from the polls.
While the Modi rivals are quick to blame the communal politics allegedly promoted by the BJP to polarise votes, there are reasons beyond ‘love jihad’, as mentioned earlier, which have hurt the ruling party. An aggressive push towards the Hinduvta agenda has been a face saver for the party, which gained a toehold in the West Bengal assembly after a gap of 15 years winning Basirhat seat though the margin of victory was just 1,500 votes.
The party suffered major losses in prime minister Modi’s backyard of Gujarat as well as in his protégé Amit Shah’s ‘karmabhoomi’, Uttar Pradesh. After the landslide victory in last assembly and Lok Sabha elections, BJP was expected to win the Vadodara Lok Sabha and nine assembly seats. But the Congress against the run of the play managed to snatch three. In Uttar Pradesh, where the party had won 73 out of 80 Lok Sabha seats in May, BJP managed to win just three out of 11.
Surprisingly enough, BJP could not even retain the Rohaniya seat neighbouring prime minister’s constituency, Varanasi. In Rajasthan, where the party had performed extraordinarily well during the assembly polls in December last year and Lok Sabha polls in May, it lost three of the four seats to
the Congress.
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