Stunning win for BJP in Madhya Pradesh, wrests Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh from Congress

The emphatic wins in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, where leader after leader credited Modi for the party’s impressive showing, also raise questions about the leadership of the Congress, especially Rahul Gandhi, and the role they seek in the Opposition INDIA bloc to take on the BJP and Modi. There are already rumblings within the alliance over how the Congress chose to go solo in the state elections, and the outcome Sunday will only add to the grievances of others in the bloc.

Although the Congress has seized Telangana, the BJP has made its presence felt and is positioning itself as a key player in the southern state – BJP’s Katipally Venkata Ramana Reddy defeated BRS chief and Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and state Congress chief A Revanth Reddy, a frontrunner for the post of the next CM, in the Kamareddy constituency.

The BJP vote share has gone up from 7 per cent to 14 per cent. Standing before a party banner thanking Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Telangana, Modi too made special mention of Telangana and, at one point, even spoke in Telugu.

“Over the last few years, this support has only been increasing and this trend will continue in the times to come. Our bond with Telangana is unbreakable and we will keep working for the people. I also appreciate the industrious efforts of each and every BJP karyakarta,” he said.

“This is a historic, unprecedented victory. Today, the sentiment that the development of the states will lead to development of Bharat has won,” Modi said.

In a post on X, he said, “We bow to the Janata Janardan”.

The morale boost and the energy that these results provide, a BJP leader said, will be a springboard for forays into states identified for inroads in the countdown to the Lok Sabha polls.

Senior BJP leader P Muralidhar Rao, party in-charge of Madhya Pradesh where it made a stunning comeback, told The Indian Express: “In this election, the BJP has once again proved to be a day-to-day functioning party. The BJP is visible, it’s moving on the ground while the Congress is absent there. The Congress debacle has not only weakened the Opposition INDIA bloc, it has enhanced the power of the BJP. The Modi brand has become unquestionable while Rahul Gandhi is weakened.”

While the acceptance and popularity of Modi as a strong leader remain the biggest strength of the BJP, its organisational strength, the goodwill created by welfare schemes initiated by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan in Madhya Pradesh and the guarantees announced by the party in Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan and the Hindutva plank have paid off.

BJP leaders also pointed out that women voters, a section that has become a major factor in the BJP’s electoral strategies, and the regained trust among tribals, a significant factor in the three heartland states, have contributed to its electoral performance.

In his victory speech, Modi said: “Every poor person, every deprived person, every farmer, every tribal is thinking he has won today. Every woman is seeing her own victory. Every young person, every citizen is seeing this as a personal success.”

Countering the Opposition move to frame the 2024 battle around caste census, Modi repeated his poll campaign line that he recognises only four castes: the poor, youth, women and farmers are the biggest castes for him, and only the uplift of these four will make the country developed.

In the Assembly elections, the Congress banked heavily on a slew of promised guarantees while the BJP countered it with “Modi ki guarantee”. And this message was amplified again on the dais at the BJP headquarters where Modi spoke after the results Sunday. “Sapne nahni, haqeeqat bunte hain, tabhi toh sabh Modi ko chunte hein (He weaves realities not dreams, that’s why everyone chooses Modi)” – that was the line on the banner behind him.

According to BJP leaders, the strong push from the party came in the four weeks before the voting on November 17. “It was almost like a surgical strike, but with our organisational strength and mobilisation capacity,” said a BJP leader who was involved with the election planning in Madhya Pradesh.

Party sources pointed out that while Modi led the campaign in Madhya Pradesh, Union Home Minister Amit Shah took control of electioneering at the ground level.

“In the last few weeks, we laid out our political strategies and micro-management to get the karyakartas to fight this election and snatch the win from the Congress, which was already celebrating the edge it had,” said another senior leader involved with the party strategy.

The party central leadership’s move to field several high-profile leaders and MPs — including Union Ministers Narendra Singh Tomar, Prahlad Patel and Faggan Singh Kulaste — and party general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya also worked.

In Rajasthan, while Modi and his popularity remained its most significant weapon in its arsenal, the BJP’s campaign against what it called “appeasement politics” of the Ashok Gehlot government appeared to have helped the party in a state where over 90% of the population is Hindu. If there was lack of clarity about its own state leadership, it countered it with a campaign on the deepening differences between Gehlot and Sachin Pilot.

In Chhattisgarh, despite the lacklustre approach of its state unit in the last five years, the party appeared to have been ready for a “decent” performance. What likely kept the BJP in contention here was the slew of promises it made just days ahead of the first phase of polling on November 7, including cooking gas cylinders at Rs 500 for poor families and Rs 12,000 per year financial assistance to married women. BJP leaders said there was “an instant positive reaction” to the promises.

Now that the results are in, the BJP central leadership is expected to choose Chief Ministers in consultation with the elected members in the respective states. However, it is unlikely to ignore either Chouhan or Vasundhara Raje in Rajasthan while choosing the leader, sources said.

Both Chouhan and Raje remain popular leaders and they have significant support among the party candidates who have won, the sources said.