Bypoll defeat will lead BJP-RSS to focus more on communal

Poor performance of BJP-led NDA in successive assembly by-elections would eventually lead the BJP-RSS combine to focus more on the core Hindutva agenda of communal polarisation, CPI(M) has warned.
"Of the 50 assembly seats that went to the polls in these three rounds of by-elections across various states in the country, the BJP-led NDA managed to win a mere 18 seats compared to the 35 assembly segments in which it had a significant lead in the 2014 general elections," senior CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury said today.
"Even in comparison to the earlier round of assembly elections in these states, there is a sharp decline," he observed in an editorial in the upcoming issue of party organ 'People's Democracy'.

Alleging that the BJP-RSS combine was pursuing "forked tongue politics" of a diabolic agenda, Yechury said it spoke of development, Gujarat model or 'achche din' (good days), but the "real methodology for reaping electoral benefits" was to sharpen communal polarisation and violence.
"These successive rounds of defeats in by-elections are clearly leading to the consolidation of returning to the hardcore Hindutva agenda as the only sustainable basis for the RSS-BJP's continued governance in national politics. This spells disaster for our modern secular democratic republic of India," the CPI(M) leader said.
Yechury asked the people to understand "this danger that must be squarely met by defeating the communal forces and thus rejecting the RSS vision of converting our secular democratic republic into their version of a rabidly intolerant fascistic 'Hindu rashtra'.

In a similar vein, CPI mouthpiece 'New Age' also said in an editorial that "communal polarisation has helped BJP to reap the harvest" in the recent assembly by-elections.

"The disenchantment of the masses with Narendra Modi-led NDA is gaining ground," the New Age editorial said.
It said the process started with the total rout of the BJP in by-elections to three assembly segments in Uttarakhand.
This was followed by "similar results" from various states like Bihar, Karnataka, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh where too BJP lost sitting seats. In the latest round when bypolls were held for 33 assembly and three parliamentary seats spread over ten states, BJP could retain only ten of the 24 seats it was holding earlier, the CPI organ said.