BJP strengthens grip with victories in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh
▶ Prime minister Modi’s party did not enjoy as easy a ride as it might have expected in its battle with Congress
Indian prime minister Narendra Modi’s party surged towards wins in Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat, but not before the opposition Congress party put up a surprisingly strong fight.
Polls were held in Himachal Pradesh on November 9 and in Gujarat – Mr Modi’s home state – on December 9 and 14. Vote counting began yesterday.
By mid-afternoon, the Bharatiya Janata Party had won or was leading the count for 99 out of 182 seats in Gujarat, heading for its fifth straight win in the state. But its tally had shrunk from the 115 it won in 2012.
Congress, which won 61 seats in 2012, looked to be keeping up with the BJP early yesterday, but by mid-afternoon it had won or was ahead in counting for only 77.
Rahul Gandhi, who assumed leadership of Congress last week, said he was “satisfied, not disappointed” with the results from Gujarat. But Congress lost power in Himachal Pradesh.
It had won 36 out of 68 seats in 2012, but on Monday afternoon it was set to claim only 21.
The BJP was on course to take 44 seats, up from its tally of 26 five years ago.
The election results indicate a strengthening of the BJP’s grip on Indian politics. Since 2014, when Mr Modi became prime minister and his party routed Congress in parliamentary elections, he has led his party to win after win in state polls, including six of the seven held this year.
The BJP now governs 19 of India’s 29 states, either alone or in coalition. On a map, the party’s saffron colour covers most of the country, except for a few areas in the south and the east.
But the tone of the BJP’s campaign, and Congress’s improved performance in Gujarat, suggests that this time the party did not enjoy the easy ride it might have expected.
In the past two weeks, BJP leaders, including Mr Modi, resorted to personal attacks against members of Congress.
He last week accused Manmohan Singh, the former Congress prime minister, of colluding with Pakistan to rig the Gujarat polls.
“What was the reason for holding such a secret meeting?” Mr Modi asked at a rally on December 10, referring to a dinner attended by Mr Singh and Pakistani diplomats at a Congress leader’s house.
“Brothers and sisters, don’t these developments raise questions? Aren’t they worrisome?”
Mr Modi and other leaders likened Mr Gandhi to Muslim emperors who ruled India, in comments designed to appeal to the party’s right-wing Hindu base.
Those accusations, and incidents such as the leak of a “sex video” purportedly featuring Hardik Patel, a firebrand activist allied to Congress, lent the campaign a shrill and sordid tone.
Mr Patel also used divisive speech, calling on specific castes to vote for Congress in return for quotas in government jobs, said M Runa, 32, a content writer in Ahmedabad, the biggest city in Gujarat.
“He didn’t say particularly decent things either,” Ms Runa said. She comes from a family of cloth traders who were hit badly by two of Mr Modi’s schemes over the past year.
The first was the sudden withdrawal of large-denomination banknotes last December in a bid to root out corruption, followed by the introduction of a complicated goods and services tax in July.
Economic activity in India slowed as a result of these schemes.
“My parents had to shut the shop early every day and come home, because there was no work to do,” Ms Runa said.
Despite this, her family never wavered in its support for Mr Modi and his party.
“We looked at this as a hiccup,” Ms Runa said. “The moves were for a good cause and they would have positive effects in the long run. My family trusts the party.
“Congress, without Hardik Patel’s support, doesn’t really have too much of a presence in this state.”
But she said the electorate also sent a message to the BJP.
“There’s a lesson here for the party: that it won’t win a landslide automatically every time,” Ms Runa said. “It has to keep working for the people. Otherwise things can change, and things will change.”
The BJP’s campaign struck a shrill and sordid tone, with personal attacks and the leak of a lewd video