The BJP would be disappointed by just getting six seats in West Bengal, but its vote share is up to 10% as compared to 4% in the last elections – the party did get a 17% vote-share in the Lok Sabha election, but the two are hardly comparable. Though it got just one seat in Kerala, with a 15% vote share, up from a little over 6% the last time around, the erstwhile cow-belt party can truly claim to have gone national – without the Assam victory in which Gandhi played more than a small part, though, the BJP would not have been celebrating in the manner it was on Thursday, with the prime minister also coming out to make a statement. Perhaps learning from its debacle in Delhi and Bihar, the party projected a local leader in Assam – whose reputation flows from having successfully petitioned the Supreme Court to repeal the IMDT Act that helped illegal immigrants – and, with Modi just visiting the state three times, the focus was very clearly on local issues.
The victory comes as a shot in the arm for both Modi and party president Amit Shah whose magic was seen as waning after Delhi and Bihar, and possibly the party’s changed strategy will help in future elections. Whether the Congress will draw any serious conclusions from the losses remains to be seen – Sarma had harsh things to say about the treatment meted to him by Gandhi, on national television after the victory – but there is little doubt the changing composition of the Rajya Sabha that was under way even before these elections will make life easier for the BJP. While finance minister Arun Jaitley is confident of being able to pass the GST Bill in the monsoon session, the passage of the Bankruptcy Bill among others makes it clear the legislative logjam has been eased to a large extent.