Cracks were all too visible. The first clear sign of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) losing the script in politically significant Uttar Pradesh came to the fore when results of the civic poll were announced in December.
Nearly 3.4 crore voters, roughly 20% of all voters of the state, were asked to elect 652 heads of three-tier urban local bodies. The BJP could win 184 of the 652 seats on offer. The winning percentage, therefore, stood at a very modest 28%. What is more, for the posts of nagar panchayat heads in semi-urban areas, the BJP could win a mere 100 of the 438 seats on offer, with a success rate of just 23%.
The BJP’s vote share was close to 30 percent, down 10 percent from the lofty levels obtained in the 2014 Lok Sabha and 2017 assembly elections. While the BJP did well in large urban centres, the performance dipped considerably in areas closer to the countryside.
However, BJP’s spin doctors and friendly press projected the verdict as a landslide for the saffron party. It was anything but a landslide, creating a sense of complacency, perhaps, among leaders and workers.
BJP’s Triple Headache
- Aggressive Hindutva’s appeal is diminishing.
And Gorakhpur loss shows that: - Modi magic seems to be up against strong anti-incumbency.
- All-weather alliance in politically significant Bihar has hit a speedbreaker.