Musings on BJP

For a while,it had seemed that with the hidden helping hand of the RSS the influence was not-so-hidden at times,as in the RSS-inspired iconography of Bharat Mata visible on Annas stage in the early phase the campaign had served the BJPs interest by consolidating and accumulating the anti-Congress vote,presumably to be reaped by the political party at the hustings later. The people gravitating to Anna Hazare were frustrated by an unresponsive,remote government,and the campaign deftly redirected their resentments against the Congress. Now,Team Annas emergence as a possible electoral contender means that a section of this anti-Congress vote could well flow to its candidates. The strategic support that the BJP-RSS extended to Hazare may arguably backfire. Meanwhile,the BJP has not been able to address its own leading problems. It does not have an emotive issue to take to the polls. The last issue it tried to frame to draw a popular response concerned black money stashed overseas,but it didnt take off then and is now past its expiry date. The party must acquire more alliance partners and regain its urban middle class vote,which tilted towards the Congress in the last two general elections.

Equally problematic is the BJPs failure to arrive at a decision on its candidate for prime minister. The BJP has refused to confront the fact that irrespective of his efficiency as a chief minister,Narendra Modi carries the ghosts of Gujarat 2002 and that could stand in the way of a wider acceptance. Now,one reading of Advanis gesture towards a non-Congress and non-BJP PM in 2014 suggests that Modis erstwhile mentor may be openly acknowledging that constraint. The BJP would do well to read between the lines of the veterans blog not for what it says about the Congress,or his own ambitions,but about a party that has lost control over its own story.