From An Assertion Of Dominance To Graceful Responsibility

Beyond BJP’s ecstasy over the overwhelming majority in Uttar Pradesh (UP), the most crucial state in Indian politics that controls the power-pulse of the nation, the results of the five state Assembly elections hold messages for all – from the expanding BJP to shrinking but persistent Congress to squabbling Samajwadi Party (SP) to an ambitious Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to an accusing Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). One clear message for all is that not only the Modi magic, emanating from the message of an effective and strong leadership in control of the party and the government, but also the gamble over demonetization, crafted less to unearth black money, more to decapacitate the opposition, has worked.

- Ajay K.Mehra

Being in Varanasi since 10 March 2017 was being in the midst of expectations – first for the Exit Poll on 10 evening, then for the results of the UP election on 11 – and ecstasy. If evening of 10 March added to expectant exultations of the likely margins of victory, by noon on 11 March, the city was waving saffron green flags; gulal-smeared youth on motorbikes were shouting party slogans and hailing Modi. A visibly glowing seer of the Vindhyawasini temple in Vindhyachal, a two-hour drive from the city, greeted me in an unusual fashion – ‘what a day for you to come to the durbar of (holy) mother, the “Bhajpa” has won; Modi has won!!!’. A visit to the Vishwanath temple on the morning of 12 March was equally instructive; priests young and old were sitting in groups with newspapers and gloating over a victory for the Hindus. For the city draped in the BJP flag, results in other states mattered little. Having witnessed Varanasi during the general election in 1989, when Congress flags fluttered in the city and few would speak of voting for the BJP, nearly three decades of politics that witnessed a transition in Congress from Rajiv Gandhi to Rahul Gandhi, there has been a complete transformation; no Congress flag was visible anywhere.