The BJP house is not on fire; not yet. But, the smell of smoke is around, two weeks after the party’s loss of power in three Hindi-belt states at one go. Clearly, when defeat came calling out of the blue, there were no takers. Success, it is said, has many fathers while failure is an orphan. So with the predicament of the BJP which is well-explained by former party chief and present highways minister Nitin Gadkari. More of such catcalls could be in the offing, and the RSS is waiting in the wings too.
Gadkari’s target appears to be Amit Shah, if not PM Modi himself. Shah was made party chief by Modi after the 2014 verdict though the RSS wasn’t in full agreement. Notably, every election the party won thereafter was credited to the magic of Modi and organisational skills and strategies devised by Shah. Now, it was not just silence on the part of Shah and the PM, but also indirect hints that the wayward chief ministers in three states brought shame upon themselves and the party by their ego-runs, as also omissions and commissions. The CMs who lost their chairs are silent like a tomb-stone. This, thus, looks like the silence of a graveyard.
Likely, after a pause, the BJP would gain its steam again or end up the loser. It depends on the craftiness of Congress president Rahul Gandhi, who’s now tasting success after the Congress party remained in oblivion for years. The Gujarat and Goa assembly polls last year were a wake-up call to the BJP. It learned no lesson. Then came Karnataka, and the Congress snatched victory from the jaws of defeat there by crafting a post-poll alliance with the JDS. The BJP again failed to see the writing on the wall.
With just four months left for the next Lok Sabha polls, the Naidus and KCRs are scouting around to strengthen themselves and strengthen the Opposition unity, and the Shiv Sena is roaring against its ally in power. Questions are increasingly raised against the eluding Achhe Din. Yet, the elections in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, despite the anti-incumbency factor, prove that all hope is not lost for the BJP. The vote shares are almost equal for the BJP and the Congress in these two states. This means the Congress, as also the rest of the Opposition, needs to put their act together sooner than later.