In the midst of the historic record breaking win in Punjab elections by the Aam Aadmi Party which swept the state, spokesperson of the party Raghav Chadha on a TV channel made a wishful thinking a silent prayer to next see Arvind Kejriwal on the PM seat.
His words cannot be taken as wishful thinking with Kejriwal having now bagged two important states Delhi and Punjab. The AAP party is now a truly national level party and Kejriwal in the future can be a serious contender for the top slot. One must also note that he is the only Opposition chief Minister today whose party holds two states.
The fact that the party has national ambitions is no secret and has been even openly declared by its members.
The success of the development model – “Delhi model of Kejriwal” is something that seems to have carried the day for AAP during Punjab elections, particularly the work done for schools and hospitals. The AAP can definitely take it across the country as the model to follow in the years to come.
The immediate challenge will of course be to turn around Punjab which is in a mess due to large-scale drug addiction and corruption.
The triumph of AAP left the high and mighty of Punjab biting dust after ruling the state for decades, this included several times Chief Minister Akali leader Prakash Singh Badal, Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal, Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal, State Congress chief Navjot Sidhu, former Congress Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh, Congress Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi.
Indecisiveness, in-fighting led to the rout of Congress which is slowly disappearing from most parts of the country and if it wants to still remain a viable party it must see how it can re-connect with people and bring about major changes in the party structure and leadership if it wants to take advantage of its glorious history.
Yogi-Modi “double engine” Sarkar
Meanwhile, the Yogi-Modi “double engine” Sarkar has been given a resounding thumbs up by the people of Uttar Pradesh.
It was a pro-incumbency wave and many failed to assess it properly. In three other states, BJP has done very well.
The question is when a number of factors like farmers’ agitation, unemployment, price rise, stray cattle issue, reeled out by the Opposition parties were going against the BJP government how did they do so well?
Let us look at the facts, as far as the farmers’ agitation issue is concerned Modi had repealed the three contentious Farm laws before the elections. So while the opposition made this into a big issue, the wind had been taken out of its sails. They were just beating a dead horse.
The farmers’ issue did have the potential to rock the BJP’s apple cart but being an extremely politically shrewd party they did not make prestige issue out of it and quietly withdraw the laws despite rigidly standing by it for nearly a year just as the elections drew near.
The other issue which is supposed to have played a role in the elections is supposedly Yogi’s “No nonsense ” attitude towards law and order.
Basic law and order is an issue that cannot be taken lightly and does touch every voter. It is an area on which the success and failure of an election can depend because the maintenance of law and order is the basic duty of the government. If you are unable to maintain law and order you do not deserve to be in government.
BJP definitely has been successful in creating fear in the minds of the electorate regarding what would happen to the law and order situation if Yogi lost.
Unemployment and price rise were other issues in which the opposition tried to corner BJP but then it could not make much of a dent.
Number of seats of BJP came down
The BJP’s sweeping win in the Hindu belt and that too UP should not be surprising but one must carefully note that its number of seats has come down since last time.
The party to watch out in future is SP which has done remarkably well since its virtual rout last time and will be a strong and robust opposition in the state. If it plays its cards well then who knows?
Looking at the national level BJP has been able to hold onto its existing sphere of influence but as yet it seems basically to remain a Hindi belt party without having much say on the regional satraps who rule significant parts of the entire country whether it be Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab, Delhi, Odisha, West Bengal, Kerala, Rajasthan, Meghalaya, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Telangana.
Even though the Prime Minister may want to show the results 4 out of 5 as curtain raiser for 2024 as an endorsement for its rule and policies , but writing off the opposition at this stage will be foolhardy.
So the BJP must strategize to be able to become a truly national party expressing the aspirations of the people throughout the length and breadth of the country.
But it has also to warily watch out for new parties which are showing national ambitions like TMC and AAP which have the potential to defeat BJP in a one to one contest as seen in Delhi and Bengal.
One should also not be under the impression that it will take decades for a fledgling party like AAP to have an all India presence. AAP leader Manish Sisodia put it very succinctly that once the Delhi model of AAP is accepted by the people, replicating it in states will take hardly any time. If people want change there is no stopping.
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