Leader Writer: Ksh Sopen Singh
In the websites of all the news portals of the country, the map of India wears a saffron colour with a mosaic of blue, brown, green or any colours which differentiate itself from saffron colour to represent Congress and other regional political parties of some states like Jammu Kashmir, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and few constituencies of Maharashtra. However, Telegu Desam Party of Andhra Pradesh is an old alliance with BJP which means that Andhra Pradesh could be under saffron colouring. Numerically, out of the total 543 Lok Sabha seats, NDA gets 340 seats while BJP alone wins in 285 parliamentary constituencies across the country. The winning of 70 seats in UP, 44 in Maharashtra, 27 in Madhya Pradesh, all 26 in Gujarat, 24 in Rajasthan and 20 in Bihar greatly helps in creating this landslide victory.
Tamil Nadu has been an absolute walk-over for Jayalalithaa, the Chief Minister of the state. Lead in the poll result tally shows that her party, the AIADMK, will get 36 of the state’s 39 parliamentary seats, giving her the biggest pie of the Lok Sabha after the BJP and the Congress. Besides this, Mamata Banerji’s Trinamool Congress is getting 34 seats in West Bengal while CPM, the arch rival of TMC in West Bengal is only getting 9 seats.
The numerical figures generated above of the election result of the country exhibit that political parties with regional agenda operating in the Hindi heartland such as RJD, JD(U) in Bihar and SP, BSP in Utter Pradesh are wiped out by the national political agenda of the Bharatiya Janata Party coupled with the one-man showmanship of Narendra Modi. Unlike previous elections held in the country, India witnesses, for the first time in the democratic history of the country, an election contesting by a political party under one man as Prime Ministerial candidate projecting himself as a symbol of development. Interestingly, the plan bears fruits. And whether the seeds of the fruits take its root will be seen in the coming years.
And what helps Narendra Modi in getting the ‘mission accomplished’ has become a post poll talk amidst strife opposition from his own party men during the course of electioneering. Narendra Modi’s greatness lies, as his critics observe, in his preparedness of the Lok Shaba Election 2014 since the last one year projecting himself to the entire country as a model of development and also his massive preparation for erecting a statue of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, an ardent patriot who was determined to unite 562 princely states with the mainstream India after the British Raj came to an end. In addition to it, Narendra Modi tactfully uses his “Chaiwala” catchword as a potential election campaign tool.
What is the agenda of the BJP? The people of the country are aware that BJP is a political party backed by the right wing Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) which has no other aim than a strong India professing a Hindu way of life and culture. However, the ground reality is that India is a country founded on the various colonies of British suzerainty of the Indian subcontinent which has a variety of diversified culture and way of life, and these diversities should be emphasised in formulating national agenda.
Coming to the defeat of the Congress party, despite its anti incumbency factors, people of the country disapprove the party due to its lack of internal democracy, dynastic succession, money and muscle power and lack of meaningful choice to the voters etc.