BJP Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi tweeted right after the last of the state elections result was announced that the victory in nearly 70 percent of the total 589 seats at stake in the four states took place was a wonderful beginning towards success of Mission 272 and for fulfilling the dream of a ‘Congress Mukt Bharat’. The impression of grandiosity in his statement apart, under his leadership the BJP has indeed put up a superlative show at the Assembly elections. It achieved colossal victories at Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan and is in position for staking a claim to the government in Delhi becoming the single largest party despite a valiant show from the debutant Aam Admi Party. The result is a resounding proclamation that under his leadership the BJP is on its way to wrest Delhi at the next Parliamentary elections. But, not so thinks the battered Congress.
This is despite the fact that the Congress faced one of its worst humiliating elections defeats. In Rajasthan, it managed to grab a meager 21 seats, its worst show in the state beating the previous low of 41 it bagged in the post-Emergency elections of 1977. In the states of Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, it has been kept out of power for the third successive time by its nemesis, the BJP. Further, the party has been decimated in Delhi (eight seats) and only the presence of the one-year old AAP prevented the BJP from snatching a majority. The humbling results notwithstanding, it is desperate to downplay the role of Modi in bringing its ruins. Top Congress leaders have magnanimously congratulated the BJP’s local leaders in the states including Raman Singh, Harsha Vardhan, Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Vasundhara Raje but has stressed that the defeat was not the result of a “Modi Wave”. Participating in debates on television channels Congress spokespersons had offered scandalous explanations to save their top leaders and the shocking losses did not stop them from heaping criticism on Modi. But, the resistance among the Congress leaders to accept the contribution from its presumptive PM candidate is unlikely to cause heartburns to the BJP now. Instead of wasting time on worthless counterclaims, the saffron party who has observed the powerlessness in the Congress camp will prefer to focus on something significantly rewarding like the Parliamentary election. The results on Super Sunday have validated the confidence of the party on Modi. To the cadres and the leaders alike the massive victory portends a return to ruling the country again. Moreover, the strong show will attract neutral political parties as its allies and improve the prospects of being noticed as a force by regional parties. The magnificent victory of the BJP should be attributed to the popularity of its chief ministerial candidates and the Prime Minister candidate.