The BJP’s new challenge

Party machine has to be aggressively geared up for the election. It needs centralised inspiration, but decentralised initiative.

Run-up to 2019 Lok Sabha polls: BJP plans bike rally, padyatra among 15 campaigns in UP — In some ways, this year-end brings cheer and a sobering moment together for us in the party and government.

Morgan Harper Nichols is an American lyricist and gospel musician. One of her year-end songs goes something like this. “This year will not end/ Like last year at all./ You have learned to be free./ You have learned to be strong./ You have held on to light/ When the night was too long./ You have braved many fears,/ You learnt a new song./ And through all of these valleys,/ You have learnt to stand tall./ This year will not end/ Like last year at all.”

In some ways, this year-end brings cheer and a sobering moment together for us in the party and government. Cheer because the economy is doing well. Stability and the growth rate have been impressive giving hope for a strong year ahead. On the foreign policy front, the country’s reputation has gone up; things have improved in the neighbourhood after some anxious months. And India got its first headquarters of any international body in the form of the International Solar Alliance headquarters at Gurugram.

The GST rollout, which took place on July 1 last year, had proved to be the government’s revolutionary economic reform towards the end of last year. This year has ended with another revolutionary social reform for gender justice in the form of the triple talaq ordinance that was promulgated in September this year. As we end the year, the ordinance is awaiting the nod of the Upper House after being passed by the Lower House to take the shape of an Act.

But on the political front, this year “will not end like last year”. Of the seven states that went to polls in 2017, the BJP had won six, ending the year with a comfortable victory in Gujarat. The party began 2018, too, with impressive victories in three Northeastern states in February. Of particular satisfaction were the victories in Tripura and Nagaland. In Tripura, the BJP alliance had secured a two-thirds majority, practically decimating the Left Front alliance which had been in power for a full 25 years. In Nagaland, the BJP had, for the first time, emerged as a strong force, winning 12 out of 20 seats contested and become a strong partner in the government together with the NDPP.