Gains for BJP at the national level (The Economic Times)

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As far as national politics goes, the main story to emerge from the latest round of assembly elections is not the damage done to the image of invincibility of the BJP’s top two leaders by Mamata Banerjee’s triumphant return to office. Rather, it is the demolition of the remaining vestiges of the Congress’ ability to present itself as a viable alternative to the BJP, one that could take advantage of emerging popular resentment over Covid mismanagement. Having lost Kerala and Assam and being sidelined to irrelevance in West Bengal, the Congress and its current leadership look totally discredited. This strengthens the BJP, despite its losses. After all, the non-BJP victors in these elections are regional parties that pose no threat to the BJP at the centre.

The BJP has come a cropper in West Bengal. Its defeat seems spectacular only because of the hype the BJP leadership had created over its prospects in the state. The party had unleashed a massive campaign in the state, engineered many defections, has been working for years on a project that some have dubbed subaltern Hindutva, which seeks to mobilise the most disprivileged castes into the Hindutva fold through some symbolic smoke and mirrors and deployed the usual BJP tactic of polarising voters on Hindu-Muslim lines, by pointing to Mamata Banerjee’s appeasement politics. Minus the hype, the BJP’s performance is spectacular. Over the last five years, its vote share has climbed from 10% to 38%, it has replaced the Congress and the Left as the principal Opposition and set the political agenda for the state. In Kerala, too, the BJP has changed the societal discourse, forcing the CPI(M) to repent its stand on women entering the Sabarimala shrine and emboldening a candidate in one constituency to declare that he did not want Muslims to vote for him. The party has wrested Puducherry from the Congress, too.

The challenge to Rahul Gandhi is several degrees more severe than for the Congress. His leadership stands exposed once again. There is little room now to ignore demands for reform.

Courtesy - The Economic Times.

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