This is one round of assembly polls that is not making all that much of a hue and cry on the front pages of the newspapers as others. Why is that? Is it because that the BJP hasn’t as yet entered into the spirit of things. Apart from a few rallies last month, the Prime Minister hasn’t held as many election meetings as he usually does in poll bound states. While for the BJP this may be cause for concern, it does stem the critics who have always been critical whenever Narendra Modi took time off from his prime ministerial duties to be the chief election campaigner for the BJP. However what does it mean for the BJP?
For sure the votes are still being polled in his name specially since the BJP has put up no chief ministerial candidate in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan or Chhattisgarh, or for that matter even in Telangana. Already opinion polls are giving two of the election going states to the Congress, and a third to the TRS, with the BJP left with Rajasthan. Even there, it is expected to be a close contest. So then has the BJP given up the fight?
Given the fact that the PM and Home Minister both take each and every election rather seriously – look at the way the BJP contested the Delhi Municipal polls last year, this seems doubtful. The strategy could be that the party is waiting for the Congress campaign to peak before the PM hits the ground with a blitzkrieg of rallies but is he leaving it all a bit late? Chhattisgarh is all set to go to polls on November 7th (first phase). Also, Diwali is around the corner and that will be a distraction for the voters who will rather be busy with the festivities than to be attending rallies.
In the Prime Minister’s defense there are some urgent matters of state in his in tray. Not to mention the fall-out from the Israel-Hamas conflict. The BJP is also busy taking on the Aam Admi Party on Liquour Gate; the Congress is still hammering away at the Adani issue which has got a new lease of life thanks to the Mahua Moitra case, so its not as if the party has taken a backseat from politics. The tv debates and the daily press briefings are as live wired at the BJP office as they are at the Congress headquarters. Its just that the focus is different. And in a way why not. Let the local leaders contest the local elections. The Congress central leadership has stayed out of it and perhaps so should the BJP’s. That is the only way the state elections can be fough on local issues, on issues that matter on ground. Ofcourse even if the Congress score card beats that of the BJP’s in the coming elections, it will not have any bearing on the Lok Sabha polls that will follow in 2024..
priya sahgal