A MANDATE FOR MODI 3.0

THE WIN IN MAHARASHTRA PUTS THE BJP ON SECURE GROUND AGAIN AFTER THE SETBACK IN THE GENERAL ELECTION. NOW TO PRESS FULL STEAM AHEAD ON THE DEVELOPMENT AGENDA

- RAJ CHENGAPPA

Nothing helps the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) succeed like a bout of failure. Just six months ago, in the Lok Sabha election, the party fell 30 seats short of the majority mark of 272 in the lower house. Even though Narendra Modi was sworn in as prime minister for a historic third consecutive term, there was a sense of defeat in that victory. The BJP had vowed to storm back to power with a mammoth majority of more than 350 seats on its own rather than depend on its National Democratic Alliance (NDA) partners for support, as it does now. For the Congress-led Opposition bloc, the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA), the 234-seat tally may not have been enough to form a government at the Centre, but denying the BJP a majority still felt like a victory.

That changed last week, as the BJP notched a giant assembly poll victory in the prize state of Maharashtra, a few months after winning the prestige battle in Haryana. Together, they have neutralised the setback of the Lok Sabha election and seen the party bounce back and strengthen its hold over the Centre. The wins are also creditable because the NDA and the BJP were able to dramatically reverse the damaging regression of Lok Sabha fortunes in these two states. As a senior BJP leader put it, "With these two big wins, particularly the one in Maharashtra, the sense of unease that our party was on the decline has been wiped out. By exposing INDIA's fragility, it has also signalled to the NDA partners we depend on for support, like Nitish Kumar in Bihar and Chandrababu Naidu in Andhra Pradesh, that the BJP remains their only option." With some caveats though, as the INDIA bloc's victories in Jharkhand and Jammu and Kashmir did expose that chinks in the BJP armour remain even as it put guard rails on the party's aggressive Hindutva.