The Bihar elections result was a second jolt for Prime Minister Narendra Modi Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) after the Delhi elections as the grand alliance between The Grand Alliance of Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad Yadav was ahead in 178 seats in the 243-member state assembly, reducing the BJP to 53 seats.
The results can be prove to be hazardous for the saffron party as it hints that if regional forces unite, they can oust BJP-led alliance, further emboldening the rivals.
Anti-Modi people took to social media and joked about how “cow” could just give milk and not vote as the Modi’s campaign reduced to how cow slaughter was anti-Hindu.
Bihar elections was one of the expensive campaigns of the BJP as the party flew around 80 party honchos to campaign and even Modi himself addressed over 30 rallies.
Ram Madhav, general secretary of BJP, said the Bihar election was a very important battle for the party.
“We will have to analyse each and every aspect of the result. There are lessons to be learned,” he said post results.
Since this was the second most humiliating defeat for the party, does it mean the Modi wave, which took the nation by storm in 2014 general elections and wiped out Congress from Lok Sabha, is collapsing now?
Here are 5 reasons why Modi’s wave did not work for Bihar
1. Campaign strategy: Modi’s BJP campaign in Bihar started on development plank and economic growth. Modi spoke about how he would embolden Bihar and lift every community. But as the days drew closer, BJP started campaigning on caste lines. They banked on the cow slaughter topic, which visibly did not turn into much dividends for the party. Even Modi spoke raked up controversial issues that did not work.
2. Modi underestimated the following of Nitish Kumar. It seems Modi is still revelling in 2014 parliamentary elections and banking on anti-incumbency. But, Lalu Prasad Yadav and Nitish Kumar have their own audience. The national agenda does not work everywhere.
3. The Prime Minister, whose job is to govern the nation, addressed over 30 rallies. So many rallies also didn’t work for Modi as voters thought BJP was stretching the rubber band too far and was showing a desperate attempt to win the elections in Bihar, India’s third populous state.
4. The DNA remark of Modi also didn’t go well with the people of Bihar. Nitish Kumar had also launched a campaign against Modi’s DNA remark. Modi had said “There seems to be some problem in his DNA because the DNA of democracy is not like that. In democracy you respect even your political rivals."
5. We are speculating that Shatrughan Sinha might be grinning. BJP sidelined Sinha, who is from Bihar, and other veteran leaders. The contest only seemed a fight between the PM and the CM.
Well, this might have been the worst gift for LK Advani on his birthday on November 08.
(Image: Indiatimes)