by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group
Congress win a warning bell for BJP in 2019
politics of hate, DeMo, GST cost BJP Dearly
Harish Gupta
New Delhi, Dec 11
The outcome of Assembly poll results in three Hindi heartland states of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan is a warning bell for BJP for the battle of 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Though Congress came a cropper in Telangana where it had tied up with the TDP and lost power in Mizoram. But the results established beyond doubt that the “invincible” BJP can be beaten in its strong hold of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh where it was ruling for 15 years. The entire RSS and BJP leadership had put its might behind Shivraj Singh Chouhan. But nothing worked there. The landslide victory of the Congress in Chattisgarh is the biggest surprise of this poll as no one expected it. It was always felt that Jogi-BSP team will cut into the Congress vote bank. But it seems, the opposite happened and it was the BJP which was routed. Its a different matter that BSP and Jogi put together were able to manage respectable nine seats in the 90 member Assembly while the BJP was reduced to 13 and Congress secured 63. Similarly, in Rajasthan where the BJP won all 25 Lok Sabha seats in 2014, crumbled though secured respectable number of seats.
With general elections barely six months away, the real battle has begun particularly in the cow belt and Hindi speaking states comprising of 224 Lok Sabha seats. The BJP had captured as many as 174 seats on its own in these ten states.
If sources are to be believed the G-21, as the conclave of 21 Opposition parties is now nick-named which met yesterday, will now emerge stronger. The BSP and SP which did not participate yesterday in the G-21 conclave, will work out modalities.
The presence of Aam Admi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal was a clear signal that Congress president Rahul Gandhi has shed his inhibitions of working with the Delhi Chief Minister. The G-21's sole aim is to defeat the BJP during the 2019 Lok Sabha polls as PM Modi is no more invincible.
The outcome is attributed to the defeat of the idea of Demonetization and hap-hazard manner in which the GST was implemented by the Modi government. Similarly, the Modi government will also have to look towards rural distress with a new prism.
The BJP's analysis is that the Ram Temple issue did help the party to prevent further slide in Madhya Pradesh though another section differs and maintains that Modi should have stuck to the Development agenda. The religious polarisation is not a big vote catcher.
The spate of lynchings may have pleased the hardcore Hindutva types, but it cannot swing the voter angry with the government, as was seen in Rajasthan. The Yogi Adityanath brand of spreading hate failed miserably in all the three states where he campaigned in a big way.
The opposition parties must have taken note of these developments and swifty calculations must be going on about positioning and tactics for the 2019 elections. The show of unity two days before the results, where almost all opposition leaders, including Mamata Bannerjee and Arvind Kejriwal showed up but Akhilesh Yadav and Mayawati did not, is a precursor of the times to come.
Praful Patel, senior NCP leader and Rajya Sabha MP told Lokmat today that this victory will give a big fillip to the Opposition unity and new chapter will be written.
Ends
