The Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) win in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls — apart from its victories in Uttarakhand and Goa — is a huge morale boost for the party, as a lot was riding on the crucial state.
The victory in UP is not only a win for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP President Amit Shah but also for the strong organisational skills of the party. It also signifies that merely an anti-Modi message will not help the Opposition. Proof: In UP, the Samajwadi Party-Congress alliance formed to defeat the BJP, along the lines of the Grand Alliance in the Bihar Assembly polls of 2015, did not help.
The BJP should not start assuming that the 2019 Lok Sabha elections will be a cakewalk; it should not become complacent. Rather, the party needs to make UP a model state for good governance, growth and development, along the same lines as in Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh where it is already in power. The next litmus test for the BJP is the Gujarat Assembly polls.
In UP, the BJP has to select a CM candidate, who can take everyone along with him and who is acceptable to all.
The BJP’s victories in UP and Uttrakahand are also testimony that demonetisation has been accepted by voters. Although the Congress has won in Punjab, it is not the party’s victory, rather it is that of state party chief Amarinder Singh.
The least Congress Vice-president Rahul Gandhi can do now is to step down from his post and take responsibility for the defeats. It is a lesson for the Aam Aadmi Party as well, which fought elections in Punjab and Goa and hoped to replicate its victory in Delhi.
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