The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has registered a huge victory in the recent Rajya Sabha (Upper House of Parliament) elections for 15 seats (10 in Uttar Pradesh state, four in Karnataka and one in Himachal Pradesh).
The BJP won eight out of 10 seats in Uttar Pradesh, the lone seat in Himachal Pradesh and one in Karnataka.
Its big win comes ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections and is seen as being especially important in Uttar Pradesh state, where some of the opposition members also voted for the ruling party.
Talking about the impact of Rajya Sabha election results, political expert Vinod Kumar Shukla told Sputnik India that for the Lok Sabha elections, the BJP has set a target to win 370 seats out of 543. He further explained that if it wants to achieve this target it will have to win a major chunk of the 80 seats in Uttar Pradesh.
“The results of Rajya Sabha election depict that the party is on the right path to secure a huge victory in Lok Sabha polls in Uttar Pradesh,” he stated.
He further said that the target also seems to be achievable with a few opposition members switching sides.
“The members of the opposition party who have switched sides have a huge influence not only in their constituencies but in the nearby areas too. Therefore, they will influence the votes in favour of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in the Lok Sabha elections, thus resulting in smooth sailing for the saffron party,” Shukla said.
He, however, said that the BJP will face a tough contest in Kairana and Mainpuri, despite being in a comfortable position.
“Kairana will be difficult for the party because it is a Muslim-dominated constituency while people of Mainpuri are traditional voters of the Samajwadi Party. However, BJP can still emerge victorious in Mainpuri as it has made the people of the constituency believe that the Samajwadi Party is creating a divide among the Hindus itself and if this works the votes will turn in its favour,” Shukla opined.
Apart from this, the political expert said that the opposition seems to be falling apart in the politically significant Uttar Pradesh as the regional parties that were in alliance with the Samajwadi Party and Congress are moving out and joining hands with the BJP.
“All the regional parties which have left the alliance have influence on a particular caste-base in the state. These regional parties have such staunch supporters that they will vote only for them or to a person whom they will be told,” he stated.
This gives a message to the people of the state that the opposition has failed in keeping its own members intact. As such, many are reportedly asking how the opposition will be able to meet the expectations of the public, Shukla asserted.
“Apart from this, it also shows that Congress’ Rahul Gandhi and Samajwadi Party’s Akhilesh Yadav are non-serious politicians who can’t formulate a strategy to win even Rajya Sabha elections. So how will they manage to make a strategy for Lok Sabha elections,” the political expert viewed.
Affirming that the BJP will be able to win more than 75 seats in Uttar Pradesh, Shukla said that the Rajya Sabha election results show that the BJP has been able to work effectively on social engineering and is more prepared than the opposition for Lok Sabha elections, which are due to be held between April and May this year.