In a resounding endorsement of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s policies and his party’s double-engine electoral plank amid criticism of the handling of the pandemic and job losses – especially in main battleground Uttar Pradesh where Yogi Adityanath was seeking a second term – four of five states returned the BJP to power on Thursday. The AAP swept Punjab, packing off stalwarts and uprooting rival parties to change the political landscape.
Elated over the BJP’s 4/5 score, Modi, while calling it “a day of zest and festivities”, said he hopes this victory will set the stage for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. “Those who look at UP through the prism of caste insult it. People of the state have repeatedly voted for the politics of development since 2014,” he said.
UP, he said, has given many Prime Ministers but for the first time it has re-elected a chief minister after he served a full term.
From the leads and results available in the evening, the BJP looked set to form governments again in UP, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur.
The results, a stamp of approval for the BJP in elections considered a test for the Lok Sabha polls still two years away, had the Congress flailing again, its stock sliding further despite a high-octane campaign by Gandhi siblings Priyanka and Rahul. Voted out of Punjab, it was leading only on two seats in UP where its vote share had dropped to a little over 2%.
For the BJP, the taste of victory was sweeter in UP where Yogi Adityanath broke the comeback jinx of over three decades. Not only did he stave off the challenge from Akhilesh Yadav-led SP, but eclipsed all others in the fray, reducing the Congress, BSP and others to single digits.
In Lucknow, Yogi Adityanath said people have buried the politics of caste and religion by ensuring the victory of BJP and its allies under Modi’s leadership.
Taking a swipe at rival SP which had alleged irregularities involving EVMs ahead of the counting, he said the “misleading” campaign run by the Opposition over the past 2-3 days had been set aside by the people who had reposed faith in the BJP and its governance.
AAP leader and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, whose party got a stunning mandate in Punjab, said: “Pehle Dilli mein inquilab hua, phir Punjab mein inquilab hua, ab yeh inquilab poore desh ke andar phailega (The revolution came to Delhi first, then Punjab, now it will spread to the entire country).”
As his party spokespersons pitched the AAP as a replacement for the Congress, Kejriwal said: “Badi badi kursiyaan hil gayi hain Punjab ke andar (thrones have been shaken in Punjab). Sukhbir Singh Badal lost, Captain Saheb lost, Channi Saheb lost, Parkash Singh Badal Saheb lost, Navjot Singh Sidhu lost, Vikram Singh Majithia lost. People of Punjab have worked wonders, and this is a big revolution.”