Capital Gain by BJP
Delhi poll result is indicative of the fact that while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has learnt lessons from the setback it had suffered during the last general elections, the opposition parties have virtually betrayed the trust of the electorate by taking different stands in different elections
- Delhi poll result is indicative of the fact that while the
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has learnt lessons from the setback it had
suffered during the last general elections, the opposition parties have
virtually betrayed the trust of the electorate by taking different stands in
different elections. It is evident from the fact that since the Lok Sabha
elections, BJP and its allies have bagged three out of four states assemblies
that went to polls since the Lok Sabha elections. All three victories are very
crucial for the saffron brigade as in two states it was fighting
anti-incumbency, while in Delhi the party had not tasted success for 27 long years.
All these electoral successes have made BJP a hot favourite in the forthcoming
Bihar election due in November next. A victory in Bihar will provide the party
much necessary confidence before facing stiff hurdles in states like Tamil
Nadu, Kerala and West Bengal, where the party has never achieved any success
worthwhile. If BJP manages to breach the wall in these opposition ruled states,
the party may be in a strong position to implement its twin agenda of Uniform
Civil Code (UCC) and one nation one election (ONOE) and may ensure another term
to rule the country in 2029.
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- While the need of the hour is to prevent the opposition
votes from splitting, it seems that opposition parties are in no mood to adopt
a proper strategy to achieve the objective that too despite a similar approach
had successfully prevented BJP from getting a simple majority in Lok Sabha.
Rather, these parties are conceding one state after another to the ruling
party, falling prey due to overconfidence and unnecessary ego clashes among the
leaders. For instance, several reasons like anti-incumbency, infighting within
the ruling alliance, farmers’ agitation and the unfortunate Vinesh Phogat
incident during the Paris Olympics were very much working against BJP in the
run-up to the Haryana Assembly elections. But opposition parties like the
Congress and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) could not capitalise on any of these issues
as they decided to contest elections separately as they could not reach a
seat-sharing agreement, even after being benefited by such an alliance in the
Lok Sabha elections only a couple of months earlier.
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- In Delhi, a close analysis of the election results reveals
that BJP could be well short of majority mark if the Congress and AAP had
entered into an electoral alliance, as division of opposition votes had
deprived opposition victories in 14 seats. It may be argued here that the
Congress-AAP combine drew a blank in the Lok Sabha polls and AAP had achieved
spectacular success in the previous two elections single-handedly, the fact
remains that each election is different from the other and thus demands
different strategies based on the ground realities prevailing during the
period. But as the two opposition parties were at loggerheads and seeing each
other as political enemies, forgetting the primary task of stopping BJP’s
juggernaut, BJP has made a successful comeback in the national capital after
nearly three decades quite easily.
