4 min readDec 3, 2023 03:31 PM IST
First published on: Dec 3, 2023 at 01:48 PM IST
Set to win all three Hindi heartland states where it was in a direct contest with the Congress — Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Chhattisgarh — the BJP’s aim for a higher target for the Lok Sabha elections has received a major boost, party insiders said on Sunday. The Congress’s performance below expectation has raised questions about the capability of the Opposition INDIA bloc to pose the party a formidable challenge in the region in the general elections.
As things stand as of 1.30 pm, the Congress is poised to win only in Telangana where the Opposition party was in a direct fight against the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), a regional party that has refused to join the INDIA alliance but has spoken about bringing together anti-BJP and anti-Congress forces on a common platform. After the loss in Karnataka in May, the performance in Telangana will have the BJP relooking at its southern strategy.
What put the BJP ahead
The BJP’s talking heads have credited Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popularity and Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s meticulous planning for the party’s showing in the Hindi heartland states. Sources in the BJP said that the party’s strategy to focus on Modi’s guarantees to counter the Congress’s guarantee politics and the allegations of appeasement politics to negate the traction the Congress seemed to have gained among the minority groups could continue in the Lok Sabha campaign too.
The upshot, according to BJP
The results show that despite its inability to bring up a strong second-rung leadership in the states, the current national leadership — Modi, Shah, and party president J P Nadda — has been extremely successful in energising the cadre for the last-minute push that ultimately helped open up a massive gap with the Congress.
While the Congress lacks the machinery and resources to sustain its campaign till the end — a hurdle that prevents it from taking advantage of the adversarial factors against the BJP — the BJP leadership was able to push its booth-level workers to mobilise voters. “The well-oiled machinery of the BJP in these states will add to its potential to work more vigorously and win more seats,” said a party leader.
‘Disadvantage Congress in direct contests’
According to senior BJP leader P Murlidhar Rao, who was the party leader in charge of Madhya Pradesh, the election results in the three states where there were bipolar contests against the Congress are a major boost for the party’s prospects of getting a higher tally in the Lok Sabha elections.
“When in 2019 we went to elections without being in power in these states, the BJP’s performance was splendid. With this kind of mandate and support for Modi ji and the BJP are advantageous for the party to win more. The Congress has lost steam against the BJP because in Telangana its fight was not against the BJP,” Rao told The Indian Express.
What will be the impact on the INDIA bloc?
BJP leaders said the Congress’s losses would directly impact the INDIA bloc. “The Congress is the nucleus of the INDIA bloc. Its main fight is against the BJP. If Rahul Gandhi could not bring much to the table, despite the claims on the success of his Bharat Jodo Yatra, what is he offering? How can there be a strong leadership to the Opposition bloc?” Rao said.
A BJP leader predicted the“disintegration” of the INDIA bloc as “every ally of the Congress and the party itself was looking forward to an advantageous position to make the platform a formidable opposition force against Modi-led BJP, it got defused now.”
Celebrations begin at the BJP party HQ in New Delhi. (Express Photo by Tashi Tobgyal) 
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