Sir,
After the BJP blitzkrieg suffered an embarrassing glitch by losing key states in its strong bastion of the Hindi heartland just months before national elections, the party spokespersons on different media channels are carrying out damage control exercises in full throttle, blaming the defeat squarely on anti-incumbency, NOTA factor and dissidence among its ranks. Whatever, a defeat is a defeat, whether you lose by margin of one run or an inning. Moreover, when the gap is narrow, the bigger is the sorrow. The whooping majority and a thumping victory like in 2014 cannot be achieved by riding on waves of the GST glory, demon of demonetization or celebration of surgical strikes for political means.
The first major setback the party suffered was in Delhi by conceeding defeat to AAP and then to Janta Alliance in Bihar, but it made a spectacular comeback by hoisting the party flag for the very first time in Assam and making inroads in North East India. Retaining Gujarat was history though Punjab was lost as expected in the rules of region. Politics of power sharing has brought the party back on track in Bihar and Goa again, so this is not the semi-final before the big final of 2019 as you call it. In the 2008 ‘semi-final’ BJP trounced INC 2-1 in the Hindi heartland of MP, Chhattisgarh and lost in Rajasthan but eventually and unexpectedly its Armada adrift and let the INC ship sail to prevail in the ‘final’ of 2008 parliamentary election. No one is indispensable in politics, to and fro obviously makes the think tank of every political party redesign its strategies and priorities based on public mood. Don’t be judgmental because ‘picture abhi baaki hai mere dost’!
Dr Vikas Jamwal
Kamdhenu Homz (Jammu)
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