OPINION

For BJP, 2024 has been a good electoral year despite general election disappointment

Thursday, 28 Nov, 2024
The BJP clinched victory in several states by banking on local leaders. (Photo courtesy: Narendra Modi/Facebook)

By Shubham Ghosh

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) did not have an ideal outcome during the country’s general elections earlier this year. Despite his party and supporters claiming that the third successive majority government was a matter of time, the results showed that the BJP could not win a majority on its own like in the 2014 and 2019 elections and had to depend on allies in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) to get to power.

However, while the national election proved to be less satisfactory, the BJP did well in several state elections in 2024, alone or in alliance. The Hindu nationalist party ended 2023 with victories in three northern and central Indian states – Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh. This year, the good run was extended to states like Arunachal Pradesh, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, and Maharashtra. The party failed to impress in Jammu and Kashmir and Jharkhand.

The BJP’s overwhelming victory in Maharashtra, where the final election of the year took place along with Jharkhand, summed up its success story perfectly. It was quite spectacular how the party delivered good results in various states after the disappointment in the Lok Sabha test. The party’s established model of Modi and Amit Shah, the Home Minister, playing leadership roles was put to use again. Factors such as development, Hindutva, and the opposition’s lackadaisical show also played a part. But one significant aspect of the BJP’s electoral success in several states was how brilliantly it used local leaders, backing Modi’s charisma.

In the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, the BJP and Telugu Desam Party reaped benefits of the groundwork of JanaSena Party leader Pawan Kalyan, who united two communities that were at loggerheads – Kapus and Kammas – to beat the incumbent government of YSR Congress. Kalyan even campaigned for the BJP in Maharashtra.

In Odisha, where the BJP came to power for the first time defeating local heavyweight Biju Janata Dal led by former chief minister Naveen Patnaik, the party had to resort to strategies other than religious polarization since it would not have worked in a state with minuscule minorities. There, the BJP gained from the hard work put in by the Sangh Parivar across the state and communities, including students, workers, tribals and Dalits, women, and farmers.
Local leaders like Dharmendra Pradhan, Jual Oram, and Pratap Sarangi, also ministers in the third Modi government, played important roles.

In Haryana, a state which Modi’s party won for the third successive time, the BJP applied smart strategies. The chief minister had been changed earlier in the year and the party ensured that the anti-incumbency factor was neutralized more by fielding new candidates. Former CM Manohar Lal Khattar’s public appearance was minimized and local faces such as Krishan Pal Gurjar, Dharambir
Singh, and Rao Inderjeet Singh were allowed to play a bigger role in polling.

Maharashtra saw the BJP emerging as the single-largest party and almost clinching a majority on its own. It was in the same state, India’s richest one, that the NDA fared badly in the national elections. The stakes were high for PM Modi and his allies and they did well to deliver a punch with a solid strategy and campaigning. Women-centric welfare schemes; backing local candidates more and well-oiled campaigning by the Sangh Parivar did wonders for the Mahayuti alliance to sweep the elections.

In Arunachal Pradesh, India’s north-easternmost state bordering China, the BJP returned to power earlier in 2024. While development in the state was one of the prime reasons, the role played by its chief minister, Prema Khandu, is not to be overlooked. At 45, Khandu is serving his third term as the chief minister of Arunachal and serves as a pillar of stability for the BJP in those parts of the country. With Modi aging, the BJP is looking to nurture its new generation of leaders, and the recent electoral success in various states showed that the experiment is paying off.

(The writer is a senior journalist and political analyst based in Bengaluru, India. The views expressed are his own)