THE POWER BLOC

This year all the top politicians hail from the BJP and while the list may lack variety, it isn’t short on character

The Indian political landscape in 2019 began with a promise. In the last month of the previous year, the country’s main opposition party, the Congress, wrested control of three heartland states—Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh—from the BJP. Suddenly, the battle for the Lok Sabha looked wide open with a loose swathe of opposition parties sniffing a chance to dethrone the Narendra Modiled BJP with some unimaginable alliances. Such dreams bit the dust in May, reaffirming that PM Modi remains the most powerful person in the country, backed by incredible public goodwill that no other politician has enjoyed in the postIndira Gandhi era. When that popularity combines with the election management skills of his deputy Amit Shah and the deeprooted organisational network of the RSS, the result is an almostinvincible political machinery entrenched at the Centre and in 13 states. This marauding machinery has not only decimated India’s Grand Old Party—twice in five years—but has shaken the bases of several personality or familycontrolled regional parties. The SP, BSP, TMC, for instance. What’s heartening is that legacy is a dead coin in this ruthless and allencompassing political structure. The BJP’s pattern of gambling with unconventional choices has given us several surprising power personalities, from Yogi Adityanath to Devendra Fadnavis and Nirmala Sitharaman to Prakash Javadekar. There’s not a great deal of variety in the power list, however: everyone wears the same colour—saffron.

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