In the recently concluded assembly elections in four states of the country—Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Assam, and West Bengal—and one Union Territory, Puducherry, the mandate given by voters has filled the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the Centre with votes. However, on the other hand, it has not disappointed the Congress Party either. While in Assam, West Bengal, and Puducherry, the public handed over power to the BJP and its alliance, the NDA, in Kerala it placed the Congress alliance in the seat of power. But the BJP achieved a double success. In West Bengal, the party registered a sweeping and emphatic victory, snatching power from the Trinamool Congress, which had been in power for the last 15 years.
The elections in West Bengal were closely watched across the country because there was a direct contest between the BJP and the Trinamool Congress, and the BJP did not have any strong regional leader in the state. It is a bitter truth that after the late Professor Haripada Bharati, the Jan Sangh or BJP has not had any strong leader in the state under whose leadership the party could enter the electoral field. Therefore, the party contested the elections under the face of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and the strategy was designed by Home Minister Amit Shah. This also proved that there has been no decline in the national popularity of Mr. Modi.
These state elections were held under the shadow of the ongoing West Asia war at the international level, which was also affecting India’s economy. Opposition leaders strongly criticized Mr. Modi and his government over this war, but it had no impact on the public. The strategy adopted by the Modi government to protect India from the adverse effects of the war and to control the prices of petrol, diesel, and LPG gas helped maintain the government’s image, and this benefited it in the elections as well. In addition, wherever the BJP was present in these states, there was a favorable wave for the party.
In Assam and Puducherry, BJP-NDA governments were already in power. The anti-incumbency wave did not arise in these states, and the BJP achieved victory. In West Bengal, where the BJP was in the opposition, it succeeded in capturing power. The main reason is also considered to be the popularity of Mr. Modi. Along with this, the ideology of Hindu nationalism, which is the core ideology of the BJP, also played a role. Defeating Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal was like chewing iron grains, but here too the Modi magic worked, because the Prime Minister had announced that every vote given to BJP candidates in the state would be considered a vote given to him. Although the party had to work very hard in this state and make its campaign very aggressive.
The slogan of the ruling party calling BJP leaders “outsiders” in the state was not liked by the people, and they expressed their support for strong nationalism. For the first time, this state went into the BJP’s fold. This also fulfilled the dream of the party’s founder Dr. Syama Prasad Mukherjee. After Bengal came into BJP’s control, states from Gangotri (Uttarakhand) to Gangasagar (Bengal) came under BJP rule. As far as Kerala is concerned, the Congress victory there is significant because the BJP has no major presence in the state. The Congress defeated the Marxist alliance, proving that communist ideology has no necessity in a religious country like India.
Apart from Kerala, communists had influence in Bengal until 2011. However, in that year’s state elections, Mamata Banerjee had already defeated the Left parties. In fact, BJP’s spectacular victory in Bengal surprised political experts, as the Election Commission itself had become an issue in these elections, and Mamata Banerjee had continuously criticized it for removing 9.1 million names from the voter list under the special revision process. Out of these, 2.7 million were those who had either voted in 2002 or had ancestral linkage to those voters (a condition for inclusion in the electoral roll).
Despite this, the state recorded 93 percent voting, yet Mamata Banerjee still faced defeat. In Puducherry, the NDA was already in power and people chose to continue it. Similarly, in Assam, the BJP-led government under Himanta Biswa Sarma was also re-elected. But in Tamil Nadu, the most prominent southern state, the new party of film actor Vijay winning the elections and removing the ruling DMK government led by Stalin from power is also no less surprising. The state has a tradition of finding leadership in film personalities. The ministers of the DMK government had targeted Hindu culture, and this also had a negative impact on voters.
Overall, these elections keep democracy in India vibrant and alive.
