Spectacular Gujarat victory

BJP’s victory in Gujarat assembly election was more spectacular than what was predicted. The saffron party is coming to power in that state for the seventh time in a row. From 99 seats in 2017, the party has now won more than one hundred and fifty seats. Their leaders too might not have anticipated such a historic win. This victory is unbelievable and authoritative of the party’s acceptance among the people.

When BJP is celebrating this wonderful victory, the loss of Himachal Pradesh will haunt the BJP. For the Congress, the victory in Himachal Pradesh will be a face-saver after tasting continuous defeats.

Another significance of this election is the emergence of AAP as a national party. The party, which was confined to Delhi only, had recently stunned all major parties after sweeping to victory in Punjab. Now they have made their presence known in Gujarat’s legislative assembly too. Their growth is within a matter of ten years is something to be noted. The party showed courage by contesting in 181 seats out of 182 seats. Though, AAP must settle with five seats for now, their victory is a sign of things to come.

AAP is sure to pose a challenge to mainstream parties in the coming elections to Haryana, Karnataka, and Rajasthan legislative assemblies.

Though, the Congress could find a bit of solace in their victory in Himachal Pradesh, this election has shown that the grand old party is on its way to its ultimate doom. An election defeat for a party is always an opportunity to find new ways to reach the people and to rectify its mistakes. However, Congress doesn’t want to make any changes even after being defeated continuously. Unless, they change its working style, the party will only be alienated from the people.

A party’s downfall begins when the people lose faith in its leaders’ words, actions, and approach. With every election, the party moving further away from the people. In the last assembly election in Gujarat the party had managed to garner a respectful 77 seats. However, this time it could not even gain twenty seats. This shows the party’s utter failure.

The Congress failed to take advantage of the anti-incumbency factor against a party which has been ruling for 27 years. The people had many reasons to be unhappy with the BJP, but Congress could not turn that into their opportunity because it lacked an efficient leadership.

Just idol worshipping a leader won’t ensure victory. The leader must have relation with people from all walks of life. He must have the leadership capacity to lead them on.

The spectacular victory of BJP is mainly because of the leadership of Narendra Modi and Amit Shah. Completing their homework on how to face the election early itself gave them the victory that party leaders themselves could not believe. It must be understood that the lower turnout in this election compared to previous elections has not affected the BJP one bit.

The organizational strength led the saffron party to this big win. Also, the charisma of Narendra Modi also helped the party at all levels.

In the midst of the grand victory in Gujarat, some political gambling in Himachal Pradesh by the BJP leadership remains a blotch to the party. Even before all the votes were counted, the Congress took steps to transfer its winning candidates to resorts in nearby states. This was done to prevent large scale defection before the legislative assembly meets. The BJP won some states by candidates defecting to the party. The Congress took this measure in fear of such a move by the BJP. However, this amounts to undermining the people’s decision.

Meanwhile, the Delhi Municipal Corporation election garnered attention after AAP destroyed the monopoly of BJP and wrested power from the saffron party. The AAP brought down BJP’s 15 years of rule at the Delhi Municipal Corporation. The party won in 130 wards out of a total of 250 wards. The AAP won by understanding the needs of the common man and working for it. The wins of AAP must be studied by other political parties.