The BJP’s capital performance in Maharashtra, and its commanding sweep in Haryana, where it drove home on its own, were probably due almost entirely to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s indefatigable campaigning in these two states — the first being the second largest in the nation after Uttar Pradesh in terms of electoral arithmetic, besides being the seat of financial power, and the second with a fair urban population, that contains the new iconic town of Gurgaon.
Coming within five months of the BJP’s impressive show in the Lok Sabha elections under Mr Modi’s leadership, Sunday’s results underline the place of one man in his party. It will always remain debatable if the party’s numbers might have been half as magical if not for this talismanic factor.
This, of course, can be a double-edged sword. While the going is good, the Modi quotient may work wonders. But when rough weather strikes, the victorious contingents of today may have to run for cover. That’s a given when too much reliance is placed on an individual around whom a personality cult is being built.
Sunday’s results are likely to give a strong boost to the PM, and confer on him political advantages he can leverage to attain goals he has highlighted, key among them being jobs, a stable macroeconomic environment of which a much lower inflation rate is an ineluctable part, and a stable political and social environment that allows people to go about their normal business free of anxieties of the kind brought upon by zealots of the Sangh Parivar, another name in today’s context for an extra-constitutional authority.
At a personal level, the handsome results in Maharashtra and Haryana on the heels of the Lok Sabha win could tempt Mr Modi to stretch himself and seek to create a hegemony for the BJP in the country of the order the Congress commanded at the height of Indira Gandhi’s power and briefly under Rajiv Gandhi — an overarching grip over political authority not just at the Centre but also in the states. Such monopoly of power can be contemplated though the effort itself has the potential to create its own downside.
In Haryana, the BJP has got votes from all sections, but especially from among those who had over time come to resent the political and social domination of the Jats, the traditionally powerful farming community. A similar move to weave in all elements of the social fabric didn’t quite work in Maharashtra. We have to see if the BJP goes with the idea of a minority government with the “outside” support of some (the NCP has already offered it unconditionally), or resumes friendship with its currently estranged old ally, the Shiv Sena.
