Assembly poll results: Modi’s juggernaut continues to roll on since the last LS polls

New Delhi: With the results of the Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir and Jharkhand out, it appears that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s juggernaut continues to roll on since the last Lok Sabha polls.

This, as it is generally believed, is because of lack of any other Opposition leader’s ability to match him, both in terms of content and image.

In Jammu and Kashmir, the BJP is now sitting on the threshold of the history, bagging the second largest number of seats, 25, in a House of 87, where the Mehbooba Mufti-led PDP has emerged as the single-largest party with 28 seats.

In Jharkhand, the BJP, in alliance with the Sudesh Mahto-led All-Jharkhand Student Union (AJSU), has managed win the majority in an Assembly of 82 seats.

Like the Assembly polls in Maharashtra and Haryana, this time too in the two states the BJP entered the electoral battle without projecting a chief ministerial candidate and made it amply clear that Mr Modi would be its principal campaigner.

The BJP’s campaign the-me revolved around “stability” and “good governance”, which Mr Modi has be-en espousing aggressively. In both the states, the PM, in his rallies, urged people to vote for “stability and development”.

Interestingly, none of the leaders who were opposed to the BJP particularly in Jharkhand could counter Mr Modi’s juggernaut.

Though some Congress leaders said that the results show that the Modi wave is on decline as BJP could neither score an overwhelming win in Jharkhand nor it could complete its Mission 44+ in Jammu and Kashmir, the results have come as a spirit dampener, many concede.

Even the grand alliance of the RJD-JD(U)-Congress and their leaders like Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad Yadav could hardly do anything. The Jharkhand results, many believe, have also set the tone for next year’s Bihar Assembly elections.