Early Times Report
Jammu, May 21: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP national president Amit Shah and the entire BJP leadership across the country have been hailing the May 19 outcome of assembly elections in five states of West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Assam and Puducherry as their crowning triumph. There is nothing that should make them feel upbeat.
Added together, these states elect 822 MLAs - West Bengal 294, Tamil Nadu 232, Kerala 140, Assam 126 and Puducherry 30. What is the score of the BJP? The BJP has only won 66 seats out of 822. It won 62 seats in Assam, three in West Bengal and only one in Kerala and failed to open its account in Tamil Nadu and the adjoining Puducherry. In other words, the BJP could only capture a little over 8 per cent of the total seats in the five states, despite very hectic and intense campaigning and still have the audacity to say that it performed exceedingly well.
PM Modi addressed almost 24 election rallies in these state. Besides, him the BJP national president and scores of Union Ministers and part leaders stayed put in these states for months to garner public support in favour of their party. Not only this, it - apart from forging alliances with every Tom, Dick and Harry - spent hundreds of crores of rupees to ensure the defeat of its political foes. That the electorate of West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry completely decimated the BJP only proves that PM Modi and his policies as well as the BJP have failed to click in these states and that its defeat could be termed as a vote of no-confidence in the BJP-led NDA Government at the Centre.
It is a different story that the non-BJP parties and formations and even the otherwise alert media have failed to put things in perspective. The happiness of the BJP is misplaced. Of course, it won Assam. But it could win there because of local factors, especially the Bangladesh factor and anti-incumbency. |
