Why Bjp shouldn’t come to power in Maharashtra till 2024?

Bjp and Maharashtra State Assembly Elections 2019

Without going too much into the details let me put some facts. In last state assembly elections held in 2019, Bjp, Shivsena along with RPI (Athawale) fought together as Yuti and INC, NCP etc as Aghadi. Following table shows the seats won by the major parties

BJP	105
SS	56
NCP	54
INC	44
OTH	29

Yuti had majority hands down but..

But, due to disagreements regarding “Which party will CM be selected from?” the Yuti broke. Initially, Bjp tried to form a govt with help of NCP. They did form a government but, it could not survive much. The government failed to prove the strength in state assembly.

Shivsena’s foremost demand was to have a Shivsena leader as CM. NCP and INC agreed to this demand. Together (Shivsena, INC, NCP) formed the Mahavikas Aghadi (AKA MVA) Government. This is still the active government while I’m writing this post.

This is just a T20 style run down of facts. Now, let’s come to the point..

Why Bjp shouldn’t come to power in Maharashtra till 2024?

No matter what media reports there is a big section of Maharashtra society which is not happy with the way this government is performing. There are some legitimate concerns which are not addressed, there is growing concern over violence and suppression of Freedom of Speech. It is also a fact that almost every Bjp (and vast majority of Sangh Karyakarta’s) are unhappy the way opportunity to form the government was snatched away from Bjp. The concerns are growing day be day.

There is a strong voice amongst Bjp supporters on Social media that, by some way or the other Bjp should come back to power. Some are also advocating President Rule. Although, I respect their sentiments I do not agree with this proposition. In my opinion, current government should finish its tenure, however Bjp supporters dislike it.

Now, instead of going into what current government is doing?, let me tell you two stories that I use as basis for my argument. I hope these stories will give you enough pointers to think.

Failure of “Feel Good Factor” in 2004

Late Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee ji is still considered one of the finest leaders of Bjp. But despite running a better government (better than previous few ones), despite being a better Prime Minister (better than previous many except P. V. Narsimha Rao) Bjp failed in Loksabha elections dearly in 2004 and failed the “Feel Good Factor”.

Vajpayee ji formed a 16 days government in 1996 but could not prove majority in the parliament (the speech he gave on that day is still amongst the best I have heard by any politician). And here the saga began. The next two Prime Ministers were absolutely were not upto mark. In fact many say, they did not even deserved the PM’s post. Anyways..

But, till 1999 India had already went through a decade of economic issues and hopelessness. People were tired of being governed by non performing, NON ELECTED Prime Ministers, they were tired of seesaw of policies, decline in industrial growth and also weak stance against hostile neighbouring countries. Although not complete majority, people gave a good mandate to Bjp to form the government. In 1999 Bjp again formed the government under the leadership of Late Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee ji.

My Opinion – Despite of all the shortcomings and disagreements with some of the policies, I still believe the government led by Vajpayee ji was far better than previous governments. Also, Bjp could not win Loksabha elections in 2008 due to simple reason that there were no clear indication from Bjp regarding ‘who will be the face of the election?’ and poor campaign. Bjp could not gain confidence of the people with their appeal.

Then why Bjp could not win in Loksabha elections of 2004? Why Feel Good Factor failed?

The simple answer is that, the amount of mess created by previous governments on “All Fronts” was way more than Vajpayee ji and his government could have ever cleaned. The good work done Bjp government was simply not enough to please the public. The incumbency in India is measured by the mess left to be cleaned up at the end of the tenure without any regards to ‘who created it in first place?’.

The amount of mess created by previous governments on “All Fronts” was way more than Vajpayee ji and his government could have ever cleaned.

Some people might point to mudslinging towards Sonia Gandhi ji or other corruption issues, economy but, I don’t consider them such big factors of failure. We can keep this topic for some later time.

So this disappointment of not cleaning up ALL the mess was in my opinion was the biggest factor of Bjp’s failure in 2004 Loksabha elections.

Before someone points it out let me tell you another story..

Why Bjp or rather Modi ji succeeded in 2019?

Let me take you all in 2012-2013 when anti corruption movement, Anna Hazare movement was at its peak. There were clear chances to topple the Congress government. But, Bjp (thank god!) did not do any such thing. Bjp kept on opposing the Congress government led by Dr. Manmohan Singh (another PM who was not directly elected by the people). Bjp waited till UPA 2.0 finished its (horrible) tenure.

UPA 2.0 was the defining time when people made a choice that “Come what may we will not let such government to take charge of the country. India deserves better than this. We deserve stringer leaders, better policies and a firm, affirmative, corruption free nation”

UPA 2.0 was still the reason people of India rejected Congress fairly and squarely in Loksabha election 2019. Hold on Bjp supporters!! I am not denying achievements of Modi ji. I am just explaining why people rejected congress and might still reject for multiple Loksabha elections in future?

Bjp led by Modi ji won more Loksabha seats in 2019 than 2014. Does that mean there was no mess left to be cleaned up in 2019? Obviously not! In fact I can list many things, policies which could have led Bjp down the ladder. The correct question can be “Even though there was much mess left to be cleaned up in 2019, why did people turned their back towards opposition (mainly Congress) and voted Modi ji back into the power?”

Again the simple reason is that the amount of mess left to be cleaned up by Modi ji’s government was far less than the fear of bringing UPA 2.0 back to power. People are ready to live with some disappointments but not with monumental mess created by UPA 1 and 2.

The amount of mess left to be cleaned up by Modi ji’s government was far less than the fear of bringing UPA 2.0 back to power.

Conclusion

After thinking a lot, thinking about the future, I came to conclusion that current Maharashtra should be allowed to complete its tenure without any hindrances. This will give better chances for Bjp to come to the power in Maharashtra with better (maybe clear majority?) mandate in next state assembly elections. I am sure you will also come to the same conclusion!

Notes and Disclaimer:

I am well-wisher of Bjp but by no means related to Bjp or any other organisation . I do admire Modi ji, Fadnavis ji and wish best for them.

This is the reason no matter how much a Bjp supporter is disappointed with Modi ji or his policies etc he/she will always stand by Modi ji and will never look towards other parties. We see this sentiment over and over again. We saw it during demonetisation, GST implementation etc. Simple reason is that, no matter how bad Modi ji led Bjp government performs it is still better than returning UPA to power. Now, connect the dots between two stories I told and read between the lines.

It was better to avoid commenting on current Maharashtra government as they are not in a mood to hear or acknowledge the dissent. After all I am more concerned about the leaders I admire as well the better future of the people in long term.

Opinions mentioned in this blog are completely mine and must not be related to my employee by any means.

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