Narendra Modi didn't campaign (or
intensively campaigned) in the bye-elections held after BJP's high voltage
performance in the Lok Sabha election 2014 that made it the first party to get majority
on its own after 1985.
And BJP languished in these
bye-elections - first in Uttarakhand, then in four states including Bihar, and
then in 9 states including Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and West Bengal.
The negative talking points
against BJP's performance simply outnumbered the few positives that it gained in these
bye-elections with the later two important bypolls seen and analysed as 'acid
test' or 'semi final' or 'test of the Modi Wave' before the upcoming assembly
elections in Maharashtra, Haryana, Jammu & Kashmir and Jharkhand.
And BJP failed in these
'semi-final' sort of tests. Bypoll verdicts gave voices to everyone. Congress,
JDU, Samajwadi Party, RJD, Shiv Sena, and other parties and the leaders of
these outfits. They took on BJP with their customized reasons.
But the undercurrent was - assembly
polls were different than parliamentary elections and BJP needed its allies.
And the favourite talking point of the opponents was - Modi Wave was receding
or had gone away, especially after poor show in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar
bypolls.
But did Narendra Modi and the
Modi Wave fail?
No. The Maharashtra and Haryana poll
verdicts say so.
Modi campaigned extensively in these
assembly polls, inviting sarcastic remarks from his opponents and allies that
he should have stayed focused on delivering in Delhi. But Modi, in his
workaholic work style, stayed focused on delivering his speeches reaching out
to the electorate. And he promised what was his central plank during the Lok
Sabha poll campaigning.
And BJP has registered historic
victories in Harayana and Maharashtra assembly polls today.
It is to be seen in the context
that BJP had no major political figure in these two states and the party had
contested without projecting any chief-ministerial candidates. The central
theme of campaigning was Narendra Modi. The party asked for votes in Narendra
Modi's name. And Narendra Modi was there, to establish direct contact. He
exploited well the supporting but vital factors like anti-incumbency,
government corruption and poor governance.
The analysis into the voting
trends shows it has been like the Lok Sabha elections, beyond the boundaries of
caste and regional considerations - voting in the name of the politics of
development.
Electorate in the Lok Sabha elections
bought what Modi promised and voters in these two assembly polls have once
again expressed their faith in Modi and like the Lok Sabha elections, even in
Maharashtra and Haryana, the ground earned by BJP was much beyond the BJP's
claim in these two states based on the party's political history.
The verdicts today re-establish the
Modi Wave discourse as the central theme of political analyses on upcoming
elections, Jammu & Kashmir and Jharkhand.