It is like Delhi is back with the BJP. Now AAP and Kejriwal can go home. The only alternative left at the National level is that the opposition must gang up to take on Modi and BJP. Now Kejriwal will have nothing to do in Gujarat and it will be clean sweep for BJP in Gujarat under the leadership Modi.
The Modi-Shah duo is now more comfortably placed to take on Kejriwal in Gujarat, where the party has been in power for almost 20 year and is facing a hostile Patidar community, which has traditionally backed the BJP.
The BJP has another election result to show that Prime Minister Modi continues to generate “hope” and his “credibility” is intact. The civic poll results will further boost Brand Modi’s credentials of decimating rivals state after state.
The so-called Modi wave that saw the BJP sweep the 2014 Lok Sabha polls and subsequent state elections ran into Kejriwal. It was the AAP and Kejriwal who halted Modi’s victory march in the 2015 Delhi assembly election. The BJP had to make do with just three seats in the 70-member assembly, as AAP got a record 67 MLAs.
But the poor showing by the AAP in its citadel – coming on the back of Punjab and Goa debacles – could help the BJP fish in troubled waters. An AAP MLA has already defected to the BJP and more could follow.
Kejriwal was eyeing Gujarat which is due to hold assembly election later this year. Gujarat is the home state of Modi as well as BJP president Amit Shah. Back to back defeats will do little to the morale of the AAP leadership and cadre.
As the BJP prepare for the 2019 Lok Sabha election, its rise and scale of its wins threatens the opposition parties. The presidential election in July will be the first occasion for the Opposition to show its unity. Things have started moving in that direction but rival parties have a long way to go before they put up a united face against the BJP.
Modi and Shah will be glad if some rivals join hands to put up a fight. It helps the duo drive home the point that the BJP is growing. If Rahul is made the Congress Chief, it will be advantage BJP. If the opposition comes under one roof, it will be very easy for Modi-Shah combination to take on them.
The Next 5 years it will be BJP in the reckoning .
U.Srinivas
Editor
