The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) triumphed in the recently concluded assembly elections in five states. Out of five, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led party won polls in three states, while managing to increase its number of seats in two states.
The saffron party got 163 out of 230 seats in Madhya Pradesh while in Rajasthan it won 115 out of 199 and in Chhattisgarh it secured victory on 54 out of 90.
BJP had won 54 more seats in Madhya Pradesh as compared to previous polls held in 2018 while 42 more in Rajasthan and 39 more in Chhattisgarh.
In Telangana, the party had won eight assembly seats which were seven more than the previous polls and in Mizoram it managed to increase its number as it won two seats while in previous elections it got only one seat.
Sputnik India reached out to political experts to decipher the factors which were behind the triumphant show of the saffron party in the assembly polls.
Modi's 'Brand' Worked Well for BJP
The BJP went for the polls in all the states including Madhya Pradesh where it was in power without announcing the Chief Ministerial candidate. The elections were fought with Modi as the face of the party.
Even after the results were out, all the members of the BJP including party president J.P. Nadda, Home Minister Amit Shah and others hailed Modi and his leadership behind the party’s success in the polls.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi
© AP Photo
Talking about why brand Modi worked well for the saffron party, political expert Vinod Kumar Shukla told Sputnik India that the Prime Minister has proved what he has been saying during the electoral campaigns that “Modi means Guarantee”.
“We have an example, Congress had promised ahead of polls in Himachal Pradesh that it will give old pension to the government employees and now if you see it is not even able to give the salaries on time forget about the pension whereas Prime Minister has delivered what he has promised,” Shukla said.
Echoing the views of Shukla, political analyst Shekhar Iyer told Sputnik India that people believe in what Modi says rather than the guarantees given by the Congress or other opposition leaders.
“The main reason behind this is that he has fulfilled his promises and also he is able to connect personally with the people,” Iyer stated.
BJP’s Strong Strategy and Work on Ground
Apart from Modi’s magic, the experts are of the opinion that the BJP was way ahead in formulating the strategy and had worked on ground in a much better way as compared to the opposition.
Sharing his views about the strategies of the BJP, Iyer said that the party was able to take advantage of pro-incumbency in the state where it was already in power and also of anti-incumbency where it was in opposition.
“In Madhya Pradesh, the party workers were working on ground from long time spreading awareness about the welfare schemes like Ladli Behna and other schemes of the federal government whereas in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh they were able to take up the issues like corruption and failure of the government effectively,” Iyer said.
Rahul Gandhi
© AP Photo / Mahesh Kumar A.
He further stated that apart from working on ground the BJP never fell prey to the media narrative which said that it would not be able to retain power in Madhya Pradesh while Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh will be a tough contest for it.
Apart from this, the support of women voters for the BJP has also increased in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh mainly because of the special schemes announced in the manifesto.
Insulting Modi is Bad Strategy
Along with the welfare schemes to hard work on ground, the factor which worked for BJP was the personal attack on Modi by Congress especially by Rahul Gandhi.
In one of the poll rally, the Congress parliamentarian while talking about the Cricket World Cup final match between India and Australia referred Modi as “Panauti” (bad luck) which trended initially but now it seems that people took it in a negative way.
“If you see this has been a trend now. During a poll rally in 2019 ahead of Parliamentary elections, Rahul Gandhi took a jibe against Modi by saying Chowkidar Chor Hai (watchman is thief) and the party had to suffer a defeat,” Shukla said.
He said that it is not the first time that Congress had to suffer a poll defeat because either Gandhi or other members hurled personal remarks on Modi.
“It has happened in 2007 ahead of Gujarat state assembly polls when Sonia Gandhi called him ‘maut ka saudagar’ (merchant of death), then in 2014 parliamentary polls, Rahul Gandhi had described the PM as ‘Khoon Ka Dalaal’ (trader of blood) while Mani Shankar Aiyar called him as ‘ghatiya insaan’ who sold tea. Then in 2017 Karnataka state assembly polls, Aiyar again called Modi as ‘neech’ (despicable). On all the occasions, the Congress had to suffer a defeat,” Shukla recalled.
Meanwhile, Iyer feels that Rahul Gandhi calling Modi a “panauti” is an add-on issue while people didn’t accepted the silence of the Congress leaders when its ally denounced Hindutva and Sanatan Dharma.
Conclusion
With the assembly polls in five states came as a big boost for BJP, the party will be going for the General elections slated to be held in March-April next year with much more confidence.
However, the party has denied that these polls were a semi-final for the 2024 Parliamentary polls but experts believe that the results would have a big impact on them.