WHY JMM-CONG POLLWIN IS A GAMECHANGER

Jharkhand verdict further shrinks BJP’s footprint in states & boosts Oppn before Delhi, Bengal polls

- Rahul Shrivastava in New Delhi

JHARKHAND has voted the BJP out in a big-impact mandate, six months after the party handed a massive Lok Sabha election victory to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The verdict favoured the JMM-Congress-RJD alliance which rode a Chhattisgarhlike tribal backlash as the BJP faltered on many political fronts.

The debacle has been made tougher to swallow for the BJP by the loss of sitting Chief Minister Raghubar Das. He lost Jamshedpur East with a margin of 15,833 votes. He had won the seat with a margin of 70,000 votes in 2014. It proved conclusively that the BJP government in the state suffered crippling anti-incumbency.

The Jharkhand loss is yet another derailment the once unbeatable Modi-Shah electoral juggernaut has suffered and this will impact the BJP, the NDA and the overall politics.

A look at India’s political map shows the BJP’s rise and slide in the last three years. In 2017, the Modi-Shah duo had the BJP/NDA flag fluttering over almost 70% of the country. By the time the Shiv Sena took charge of Maharashtra with the NCP and the Congress, the saffron footprint was down to a little over 40%. Jharkhand will bring it down to 35%.

The Jharkhand verdict underlines a new pattern that should worry the BJP. The party’s failure to keep allies is being attributed to the heavier muscle the majority 2019 verdict has given to the BJP. The party has been trumped by regional player JMM like Shiv Sena and NCP in Maharashtra. And again PM Modi’s bête noire, the Congress, has a hand in the BJP’s loss, like in Maharashtra.

WHAT WENT WRONG

The BJP over estimated its strength to begin with. Its ally AJSU wanted 20-odd seats. BJP didn’t want to give more than 15. Tight-fisted and big brotherly, the BJP made a Plan B and decided to go alone.