What was thought to be a cakewalk for the BJP in Maharashtra and Haryana has turned out to be a taming experience for the nation’s largest political party. The intensity of this shock, virtually losing Haryana and conceding a large number of seats to the Opposition in Maharashtra after a five-year rule, could be seen as a demonstration of the people’s dissatisfaction with the BJP’s performance at the state level.
What cannot go unnoticed at this juncture is also the outreach by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who addressed unusually large numbers of election meetings in the two states in the past few weeks to drum up support for the BJP. Still, the voters in Haryana refused to give the BJP one more chance. It would now be for the party to vie with the Opposition and go out of its way to entice smaller parties or independents to cobble a new government. In the case of Haryana, even taking the support of a crime accused legislator. The stray results of bypolls from other states too should give the BJP and PM Modi the jitters.
The results go to show that voters cannot be taken for granted. Good performance is what will impress the people. Neither the Manoharlal Khattar government in Haryana nor the Devendra Fadnavis-led BJP-Shiv Sena dispensation in Maharashtra acquitted itself well in the five years of their rule. No fancy project was unveiled to change the destiny of the state, be it Haryana or Maharashtra.
The BJP won the LS polls by harvesting the good response of the people vis-à-vis the Modi government’s military adventure in Balakot. It meant something at the national level. When assembly polls come, the fight is based on state and local issues. Broad assessments like farm distress, growing scenario of joblessness, or economic downturn might or might not have influenced the voters. Had there been good governance of a high order, this would have offset the people’s disappointment over such matters.
Overall too, the results show that people are not impressed by the BJP but they had no choice in Maharashtra and Haryana. The principal Opposition the Congress is demonstrably in a disarray. This was evident also in the the casualness with which the party approached these polls. Rahul Gandhi was abroad for meditation while Sonia Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi opted to keep away from the campaign. If the Congress had taken this round of campaign more seriously, and also put its house in order after the LS polls, this would have been BJP’s turn to face a harsher poll reverse.
