The 2019 LS polls will be hard fought battle between BJP & Congress

Sachchidanand Jha

Patna : The BJP led NDA’s demoralising defeat in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Chhattisgarh assembly elections clearly suggests that the 2019 LS elections will be a hard fought game between BJP and Congress. After being in power for more than four-and-a-half- year, the BJP is hardly in a position to take things for granted now. This is evident from the fact that Congress has made inroads into both its urban and rural vote bank in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Chhattisgarh, which account for 65 Lok Sabha seats together.

But, Congress too can hardly afford to be complacent as it suffered crushing defeats in Telangana and Mizoram. It can’t ignore the fact that it has barely crossed the line in Rajasthan and fell short of the magic figure in Madhya Pradesh though it registered a landslide victory in Chhattisgarh. For the BJP, the silver lining is, it is still a force to reckon with in both Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan and not wiped out like Congress and Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh and CPM in Tripura. The BJP had also emerged the largest single party in Karnataka Assembly polls too.

But, the BJP appears to have erred on organisation front not on administrative front. Demonetisation was not at all an issue in the polls to the 5 state assemblies or earlier in Uttar Pradesh, Uttrakhand, Himachal Pradesh, and Tripura assembly polls.

The BJP has not used the services of Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) chief and union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan much in the electioneering in any state which went to polls though it has used the star power of Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath. Although the BJP boasts of charismatic campaigner like PM Narendra Modi besides the tireless BJP Chief Amit Shah, the NDA will be wary of Congress President Rahul Gandhi’s rising political clout. The NDA can’t afford to take Rahul Gandhi lightly anymore.

Next four months will be crucial for the BJP on organisational front as it has to contend with powerful regional parties as well. PM Modi would have to give more attention to the party now to make necessary changes in the organisation the 90% LPG coverage, tremendous improvement in electricity connections and construction of National Highways, Ayushman Bharat, Jan Dhan Yojna, and Swachh Bharat Mission notwithstanding.

The BJP needs to do introspection as to where it went wrong and also why did not takre it any lesson from the several reverses in the Lok Sabha and Assembly by-polls. In many states where the BJP is in power, the organisation has gone into hibernation losing connect with the people.