Is BJP’s Gujarat win only a start to maintaining its other strongholds?

mangaloretoday News Network

Gujrat, Dec 19, 2017 : The BJP won the closely contested Gujarat Assembly polls by a simple majority, but the election results have rung the alarm bell for incumbent BJP in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh that are going to the polls next year.

 

While the party faces strong anti-incumbency in all three states, the chief ministers (CM) have also been struggling against significant challenges during their current term.

Unlike Gujarat, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah literally took electioneering in their hands, BJP will have their CMS - Shivraj Singh Chauhan in MP, Vasundhara Raje in Rajasthan and Raman Singh in Chhattisgarh at the helm of affairs.

Recent farmers’ protests in MP, infighting within BJP in Rajasthan and the threat of Maoist rebels in Chhattisgarh are major worries of the BJP.

The three states will go to polls in December 2018, and the BJP has already swung into election mode, as these elections will essentially set the tone for the 2019 general elections.

The BJP has been in power in MP and Chhattisgarh since 2003 while it won Rajasthan from the Congress in 2013.

However, party sources said the electoral trend in Rajasthan in recent years of not voting a party to power for consecutive terms was worrying the high command.

A senior BJP leader said PM Modi will be party’s trump card in these elections, but the party will also bank on the popularity of its CMs.

BJP top leadership believes their welfare schemes, the popularity of the PM, and aweak opposition will help them bag another victory. A BJP leader involved with poll management in Gujarat said, "BJP has many lessons to learn from the Gujarat results.

The leadership in MP, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh will have to strengthen party’s boothlevel structure to increase its vote share. While BJP has predominantly been winning the urban pockets; focus has to be shifted to rural belts with governments’ welfare schemes."

He added that a mechanism has to be devised to counter polarisation of votes on the lines of caste and religion.

BJP faced a major opposition in Gujarat from caste-based leaders like Hardik Patel, Jignesh Mewani and Alpesh Thakore who aligned with the Congress during the polls. However, the BJP managed to save its vote share by creating a divide in the Patel community.



courtesy:Yahoo