The recently concluded Gorakhpur and Phulpur by-poll result is seen as a massive setback for the BJP. After making inroads into the north-east by winning Tripura assembly polls the saffron party had become overconfident of coming up with an impressive performance in the Gorakhpur and Phulpur. However, voters remained unimpressed with BJP’s governance and voted for Samajwadi Party. Thus, the UP by-poll result is a wake-up call for the BJP ahead of the next year’s Lok Sabha polls.
While campaigning for the 2014 Lok Sabha election Narendra Modi had promised to eliminate corruption and inclusive development of every section of the society. As the party is inching closer to celebrating its fourth year, voters remain unhappy with the outfit for its failure to fulfil the promise made by it. This was the first time that BJP had managed to win complete majority in the Parliament. People had given a clear mandate the outfit as they were fed up with Congress party’s performance and wanted some change. However, the manner in which BJP is functioning one can say that there is no difference between them and the Congress party. While Congress was known for indulging in corruption, BJP had failed to act against corruption. Modi had stated that ‘Na khaaonga na khaane doonga’ but corruption is rampant in BJP’s reign too as businessmen like Lalit Modi, Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi have fled the country after being involved in scams but the government remains a mute spectator.
BJP had also promised to deposit Rs 15 lakh in the accounts of every Indian by bringing back black money stashed abroad. Amit Shah nonetheless termed the promises made by the PM as a political jumla. Instead of taking action against black money holders the government had gone ahead with demonetisation policy which created huge inconvenience to citizens as they had to stand outside the banks to deposit their hard earned money. The government also hastily introduced the Goods and Services Tax (GST) legislation which had an adverse effect on the economy. GST was meant to ease the woes of tax payer by bringing in single tax rates across India but businessmen found the entire process too complicated. Opposition parties criticised the government for mismanaging the economy as India is witnessing jobless growth. On the other hand, Modi asserted that even a person earning Rs 200 per day by selling pakoras can be considered as being employed.
Ever since the BJP government has come to power there has been a rise in communal violence incidents. In an attempt to gain power in the states like Karnataka, Kerala and West Bengal the party has been inciting communal violence. The party is indulging in politics of polarisation by creating a rift between Hindus and Muslims. Already opposition parties like TDP, CPI, TRS, AIMIM and TMC is calling for like-minded outfits to come together for challenging BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. BJP will have to pull up its socks to restore voters’ confidence or else the party might find it difficult to retain its power.
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
