2019 a diffErEnt BallGaME

Despite losing three major Hindi states of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, some top Bharatiya Janata Party leaders feel that this may be a blessing in disguise. The kind of tough fight that the BJP Chief Ministers Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Vasundhra Raje gave in their respective states of MP and Rajasthan, top BJP leaders feel that they can convert the current defeat into victory in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections in these states.

This writer travelled extensively in many parts of Rajasthan during the Assembly election campaign. In most of the places, people showed anger against Raje but not against Prime Minister Narendra Modi. A popular slogan, Modi tujhse bair nahi, Raje teri khair nahi summed up the public mood. This has raised the saffron party and the RSS Parivar’s hopes for the 2019 elections.

NOTA scoring over winning margins, rebels spoiling victory chances, and anger of Dalits and upper castes against the BJP have emerged as the major cause of the party losing despite giving a tough fight. In fact, the stature of Chouhan has increased in the party as it lost MP by only a few seats.

The Congress should not be too excited about its victory. It will have to approach next year’s Parliamentary elections carefully. One wrong step can reverse its fortunes. Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan did not come easily to the kitty of the grand old party. The BJP logged more votes than the Congress in MP and had there been alliances with the BSP and the Gondwana Party, counting would not have been the all-day cliff-hanger.