Brig Arun Bajpai
Let there be no doubts that Congress party needs to be complemented that without any wave of any sorts going, Congress under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi did win three Hindi heartland states of Madhya Pradesh , Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh where elections were held recently. Agreed that incumbency factor was there, both in MP and Chhattisgarh BJP was ruling for last 15 years, but it was not so much that if BJP had governed well it would have led to its ouster. While a lot has been written on this issue by various authors, nevertheless some more points need to be analysed.
It will be appreciated that after winning 2014 General Elections and forming a single party Government after 30 years, BJP was sitting in the drivers seat. BJP kept on winning elections after elections till it was ruling in Centre along with 19 other states and the other national party, the Congress, except for Karnataka that also coalition, had no other major state to rule. After general elections of 2014 came demonetisation and GST. Both of these were handled very badly, putting citizens of India and its traders in great trouble. So when UP elections came, no body thought that BJP will come to power in the state with a brute majority of 325 seats. But then it happened and there has been euphoria all over. No body thought that now the BJP juggernaut can be stopped. But then unthinkable happened and the BJP in the recent elections in three Hindi heartland states of MP, Chhattisgarh , and Rajasthan lost . Agreed that in MP and Rajasthan, it lost with paper thin majority, but then losing is losing and this has to be accepted.
In Chhattisgarh, opposition was weak and votes were also divided. It was being assumed that Ajit Jogi fighting in concert with Mayawati of BSP will dent the votes of Congress and will help BJP , nothing of the sort happened. Not only BJP lost but lost badly and has been side-lined. BJP has to really analyse in detail why its workers lacked motivation. It is true that the EX CM of BJP, Mr Raman Singh had done lot of work, so still why BJP lost ? It is now being said by one group of BJP in Chhattisgarh that Raman Singh had no time to talk to BJP grass roots workers, some said that the scamsters Babus responsible for various scams were rewarded and so many other things. There was no doubt that groupism existed in BJP in Chhattisgarh which should have been addressed much earlier but was not done. The result is for all to see.
In Rajasthan it was being said for quite some time that aam janta is angry with the CM Vasundhara Raje Sindhiya. So why did BJP not take any action to replace her ? No body in the world is not dispensable. However despite a anti BJP mood of the people, Congress could only achieve a wafer this majority in Rajasthan that also with Jod-Tod. The credit For Congress victory in Rajasthan goes to Sachin pilot who was relentlessly working for Congress.
Strange case is of MP where there was just .5% difference between vote share of BJP and Congress, still the Congress won. Actually in MP one can say that the Ex CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan could not decide on which front he should give more importance. Swarna in MP were annoyed with BJP for approving the upturn of SC decision in the Parliament that no body will be arrested in SC/ST Act without investigation. For this blunder of theirs, BJP paid this price of losing all three states of Hindi heartland. At the same time Dalit and Adivasis were not happy because they feared BJP is planning to end reservation. Despite Shivraj Singh Chauhan coming from Kissan Background, Kissans were not happy because of low Government MSP rates.
Also other reasons of loss of these three states by BJP are that despite lot of work done by Modi Government on Ujjawala scheme, PM Housing Scheme, making of toilets etc the implementation of these schemes on the ground by Indian Babudom was very slip shod. Lot of money was siphoned off to their pockets. Since Modi relies more on these Babus then his ministers, these Babus are living in dream world. Time Modi ji changes his priorities and make Babus only Babus, otherwise results of 2019 elections may also go this way. Also it is true that in all these three states RSS workers did not participate with josh. This must be sorted out at the highest level.
Lot of top netas of BJP during their elections speeches concentrated on commenting on Dynasty rule of Congress. It needs to be understood that now almost all political parties including BJP is following this dynasty concept. So what is the idea of throwing stones on other party Netas houses when BJP itself is fast becoming dynastic party itsellf. If these people the voters are voting in power dynast political parties then so be it. Why cry from roof tops? Similarly now current BJP Government has already done 4.6 years in office. Still for all major problems being faced by the voting public they blame previous governments ? When will the problems for the BJP will start ? after they finish their innings?
All said and done despite loss of three states by BJP, not very much damage has been done to them by the people of India. The polity of India has given to BJP a rap on the knuckle to improve their ruling ways, come out of their arrogance, provide good governance. If they again fail then results of general elections 2019 will be catastrophic. It is now for the BJP to decide how they want to tackle these issues.
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