Modi leads BJP to landslide victory in state elections

In 2012, the BJP tried to cash in on former chief minister BC Khanduri’s clean image but bagged only 31 of the 70 seats putting Congress in the driver’s seat. The BJP won just 53 seats.

The BJP’s triumph in Uttar Pradesh prompted even opposition politicians to acknowledge Mr Modi’s dominance of the Indian electoral landscape.

Parrikar, who spearheaded the party’s campaign in the state, said all the leaders share responsibility for the poor performance.

Still, the BJP likely collected minority votes, including Muslim women whom he courted by questioning an Islamic practice that allows men to divorce their wives with three simple words. The Congress got seven seats, while the BSP, headed by Mayawati, won 19 seats and was leading in four. The Congress faced a tough situation in its pocket borough of Amethi and Rae Bareli. Many leading political leaders including Rahul Gandhi, Mamata Banerjee, Akhilesh Yadav, Arvind Kejriwal, Lalu Prasad Yadav had made a scathing attack on PM Modi over his demonetisation move, arguing that it would sink BJP’s chances in the coming polls.

But for some the BJP’s win is bad news.

UP 2017 saw a consolidation of the “sab jaat versus teen jaat” which is the BJP’s Kalyan Singh-style social engineering of 1991 reinvented for 2017. Her allegation is unlikely to be taken seriously.

Mukhtar Ansari who contested on a BSP ticket has won from Mau while his son Abbas Ansari, also from the BSP lost from Ghosi.

But the party also played its Hindu nationalist card boldly, well aware that it could never hope, in any case, to win over the state’s 40 million Muslims. Similarly, the ABP-CSDS survey gave the BJP an edge with 16-22 seats, putting Congress in the second place with 10-16 seats.

The BJP’s groundwork had begun immediately after the Lok Sabha victory and been assiduously followed up till a few months back all the way up to the ticket distribution stage. Raghuraj Pratap singh alias Raja Bhaiya has won as an Independent from Kunda.

Echoing similar sentiments, Union Minister Piyush Goyal also heaped praise on Prime Minister Modi’s leadership and BJP president Amit Shah for playing the role of a sculptor in scripting victory for the saffron party. He, however, stressed that Congress’ gains in Punjab and likeliness of the party to form government in Goa, ruled by BJP until before the elections, should not be ignored. In the Churu market, while the BJP, with 140-150 seats, was behind SP-Congress (170-178) on the day of first phase (February 11), its seats dramatically increased after the fifth phase on February 27. He added: “Very rarely in state assembly elections do parties win without projecting a local leader like the BJP did”.