In the four state assembly election results, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, defeated the opposition in two of the Hindi Heartlands, sweeping the region. In addition to keeping control of the state legislatures in Madhya Pradesh, the BJP also forced the Congress, its adversary, out of office in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. The outcomes of the 2023 Assembly election have undoubtedly bolstered Prime Minister Modi's campaign for a third term in office. The result shows that PM Modi's standing in the large, mostly northern Hindi-speaking states is unaffected. Only months after losing its lone southern stronghold, Karnataka, to the Congress, the BJP leadership celebrated a hattrick. Prime Minister Modi stated that some people have already expressed confidence that his third term in office will come from winning the three state assembly elections.
By portraying himself as a leader who has kept his word to support the common man in realising his dreams, Modi put the pressure on the Congress over its electoral pledges. During the Assembly elections, the BJP politicians made a bigger effort to promote Narendra Modi because his promises were included in their manifestos. In addition, PM Modi initiated a vigorous campaign to win over the common man in all states that are headed for elections, with the exception of Mizoram. After the election announcement, PM Modi spoke at 14 rallies in Rajasthan, MP, and five in Chhattisgarh. His followers cheered him on when he entered many of the rally venues during his two huge roadshows in Rajasthan and MP.
Even as the parliamentary polls loom large, political parties are in the midst of a pivotal moment, at least in terms of installing new legislative assemblies in states. The BJP has chosen three men who are all in their 50s and represent diversity, taking the lead in bringing about generational change. The 56-year-old Brahmin Bhajan Lal Sharma, the current chief minister of Rajasthan, is a first-time Member of Legislative Assembly. The selection of Mohan Yadav, an OBC who is 58 years old, to succeed four-time chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan in Madhya Pradesh is equally shocking. The saffron party had earlier appointed a new face in Chhattisgarh: Vishnu Deo Sai, a Scheduled Tribes member who is 59 years old.
Vasundhara Raje is not the chief minister or the chief minister-in-waiting of Rajasthan for the first time in twenty years. The longest-serving BJP chief minister, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, has decided not to run for the Madhya Pradesh seat again. Of course, it would be foolish to disregard luminaries such as Raje, Chouhan, and the previous chief minister of Chhattisgarh, Raman Singh. However, it is clear that individuals who assisted the BJP in establishing itself in these areas are making way for a new generation with the introduction of relatively unknown leaders as the chief ministers and deputy chief ministers in the three states. It would be oversimplifying to see this change in leadership as an effort to consolidate power among the core group of leaders, or to reduce them to size. The selection of chief ministers (CMs) before of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections conveys a strong statement about the Modi-Shah BJP's overall political approach and ideology.
Vishnu Deo Sahai is arguably the most well-known of the three; he has served as president of the Chhattisgarh BJP and as a former Union minister. His promotion is being presented as a continuation of Droupadi Murmu's representation of the tribal group, which makes up around 9% of the country's population, following his election as President of India. Three-term MLA and former state education minister Mohan Yadav is a member of the majority OBC population in MP, while his deputies, Rajendra Shukla and Jagdish Devda, are members of the Brahmin and SC communities. While his deputies, Premchand Bairwa and Diya Kumari, are from the Rajput and Dalit communities, Rajasthan's CM-elect, Bhajan Lal Sharma, is a first-time MLA from the Brahmin community. It appears that the BJP has chosen to prioritise regional balance within each state along with appeal to caste and community. Ideological allegiance is another force that is at work, though. The three Chief Ministers are often perceived as having strong ties to the Central leadership and the RSS, and as ardent advocates of Hindutva ideology. That is the message for 2024: the BJP will rely on the popularity of the Prime Minister, its ideological foundation and its products (the Ram temple and the repeal of Article 370), and caste logic on the ground. That being said, regardless of the outcome of the general election, the CMs' top concern must be governance.
Possibly the biggest shoes to fill are those of Mohan Yadav. During his more than 20 years as chief minister, Chouhan elevated MP from one of the least developed to above the national average, particularly in the field of agriculture. CM Yadav's task is to guarantee employment creation and emulate his predecessor's achievements in other industries. Bhajan Lal Sharma should concentrate on striking a balance between fiscal conservatism and social schemes, given the rise of such schemes in Rajasthan. In addition to jobs, Chhattisgarh requires development and to keep an eye on the Naxal problem. The three CMs now need to create new governing paradigms in order to leave their own legacy.
Continuity with Change
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has completely changed the culture of the Bharatiya Janata Party from the time of Vajpayee and Advani. Now the culture of the party has completely changed, the way the party looks at people, the way it looks at the country, the way it looks at the society and the section of the society from which the new leadership is coming into the party, everything has changed. Let's talk about how what was there before and what has happened now has changed. First let us talk a little about today and then tell you about the past, how was the Bharatiya Janata Party during the era of Atal-Advani?
What we have seen now is that after the elections of three states, the Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister have been elected, you cannot say about any one of them that they have reached here by doing Ganesh Parikrama. You cannot say about any one person that he has reached this far because of his family connections. You cannot say about any one person that he has no relation with the public and was suddenly para-dropped from above, and it cannot be said that they have nothing to do with the common worker.
All these people are ordinary workers who were sitting in the back row even in the legislature party meeting when they were mad CMs and Deputy CMs. You will remember from Gujarat, when Bhupendra Patel was elected Chief Minister, he was sitting in the back row.When his name was called, he came forward and this is the situation of the Chief Ministers and Deputy Chief Ministers of these three states.
This is the beginning of the era of establishing the reputation of the common worker. It does not matter whether you have studied from Oxford, St. Stephen's or any big educational institute of India, or what background do you come from, what is your family background? Are you an English speaker or a follower of English culture? It doesn't matter if you come from that culture, in fact, in a way, it can take you out of the race in the era of Modi and Amit Shah.
People, who are connected to the land, who have a connection with the culture of this country, who do not have a colonial hangover, who are not Macaulay's sons, they are being promoted. If the saying is said in true sense that the British left behind their children, then these leaders should not be counted among those children. Such people are being promoted and given leadership, who can be called as Karyakartas or workers. If we talk about earlier, during the time of Atal-Advani , the intellectuals and media people of Lutyen's Delhi were closer to the ruling party of that time i.e. Bharatiya Janata Party than the people associated with Indian culture and Sangh background. People who were connected to India, Indian culture or Indian education system, all were considered second rate, Advani had a special fondness for such journalists who were influenced by leftist ideology, if not completely leftist. Even if you are influenced by leftist ideology, you may have studied in English schools or have grown up in English culture, he liked those people and it was the same with AtalBihari Vajpayee also that although he did not like such people very much but he felt good in the company of such people. They liked the appreciation of such people that if we are being appreciated in this class then we are doing good work. And people, who are considered their own, their partymen, they had no importance, hence they were not given priority. Even then, just like the Congress era, it was influenced by Lutyens' Delhi or the Khan Market gang.
There was a Bharatiya Janata Party government at the Center for 6 years under the leadership of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, but there was no major change in its culture. The difference that should have been visible between the formation of the BJP government from Congress, the change that should have been visible, was not visible. It had a deep impact on the worker, he gradually became separated from his leadership, his distance from his leadership started increasing. When a BJP worker is angry or sad or disappointed, he does not vote for the other party, he sits at home and this is what happened, the BJP voters did not go anywhere in these 10 years between 2004 and 2014. They sat down and were disappointed that the party's leadership had become disconnected from our ideology. To form the government at the center, Bharatiya Janata Party put its three core issues on the back burner - Ram Janmabhoomi, Article 370 and Uniform Civil Code.All three issues were removed from the agenda of governance.
Apart from that, you see the kind of people who were promoted in Lutyens' Delhi, whether it was about giving houses, whether it was about giving jobs or about providing other facilities, these were all the same people who were there during the time of Congress. But what did Narendra Modi do as soon as he came, the first message he gave was that these are the sons of Macaulay, these are the children of the colonial hangover, these are the children of the British who went away and left behind their children, we do not accept their company, we want our own people. We need people brought up in their culture and who are proud of Indian culture. What could be a bigger irony than the fact that people who had aversion towards or hated BJP came closer to BJP, Modi recognized this. Modi did not come to Delhi much when he was the Chief Minister, he did not give that kind of attention to the journalists of Delhi and after becoming the Prime Minister, he insured this. The first thing that was done was that the large group of journalists who used to accompany the Prime Minister for fun was stopped at government expense. This was a kind of cultural shock for the media persons of Lutyens' Delhi and the Khan Market gang. They did not believe that any Prime Minister could do this but Narendra Modi did it and after that, if you look at his style of governance in his government appointments, Indian culture was given priority to those who were proud of their Indian culture.
This is the difference between the BJP during the time of Atal-Advani ji and today's BJP during the time of Modi Shah.Now, Oxford educated people are not considered scholars, Modi saw this. Dr. Manmohan Singh, who was educated from both Oxford and Cambridge, was the Prime Minister of this country for 10 years and among the biggest economists of the country, he ruined the economy in such a way that it took a lot of time to save it. It took time for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to see that India needs to be free from people like Chidambaram, Mani Shankar Aiyer, they cannot run India. Due to this attitude, they cannot take India forward. It cannot make India powerful; it cannot establish India's prestige on the world stage.
That's why Modi started the process of change, he worked to promote such people who are full of Indianness. Modi did not care that he would be criticized for this. He knew that this Lutyens Delhi system is very strong and powerful. It has connections not only within the country but also with foreign countries and it can make any government unstable. But Modi neither cared about these criticisms nor was afraid of their power, rather he constantly worked to weaken them and show them their status.
Road to 2024
The path to another term in office for the saffron party looks clearer with the BJP's victory in three important states thanks to the popularity of Prime Minister Modi and Hindutva sentiments. Based on the distribution of Lok Sabha seats in the five states that were recently elected, Madhya Pradesh (29), Rajasthan (25), and Chhatisgarh (11) account for 65 seats in the lower house. The BJP currently controls all 12 states—Uttarakhand, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Goa, Assam, Tripura, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, MP, Rajasthan, and Chhattisgarh—before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
However, in the Hindi heartlands, the support of the opposing Congress party is declining. Congress controls Karnataka and, as of late, Telangana in the south of India, but just Himachal Pradesh in the north. Given that other opposition parties might no longer view the Congress as the centre of the opposition coalition, the Congress's loss in these elections seemed to erode its standing inside the INDIA bloc, where party relationships could alter. Along with its allies in the INDIA alliance, the Congress will overcome short-term setbacks and thoroughly prepare for the Lok Sabha elections, according to party president Mallikarjun Kharge. The battle is now firmly set for 2024, but it appears the Congress will have to outshine the BJP with considerable force if it hopes to succeed.
Conclusion
Modi did two things in parallel: he gave prestige to the common worker in his party and instilled in the mind of the common worker that the big posts are not those who are educated from big educational institutions. It is also for the common man. The only question is that your dedication should be towards your ideology and your country and society. One should have interest in creating social harmony in the country, one should have inclination, if one have these qualities then no post is out of reach for the. And the way these three Chief Ministers were made, you will see such changes in the Lok Sabha elections too. How will there be changes in the candidates who won in 2019? How many of them will be changed and the new cabinet for 2024? Modi has just started preparing for it and you will see a completely new government. The old government is in continuity, but seeing its form, you will feel that the new government has been formed for the first time, Modi is in favor of Change with Continuity and secondly, he is proud of Indian culture.
This change has increased the enthusiasm of the common worker even more, he has felt that this new culture of the party is developing, in this it is actually connected to our land and is for us and for people like us. The effect of this change will not be seen only till one election in 2024, its effect will be for many decades to come. What Amit Shah says is that BJP will remain for the next 50 years is true. With the changes Modi is bringing, you can assume that it will be very difficult to remove BJP for the next 40-50 years. That is why this change will be permanent and long-lived and I believe that our generation and the next generation are fortunate that we are seeing this change happening with our own eyes.
By NILABH KRISHNA
(The content of this article reflects the views of writers and contributors, not necessarily those of the publisher and editor. All disputes are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of competent courts and forums in Delhi/New Delhi only)
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