ALTHOUGH it looks certain that the BJP will win again in Gujarat despite being in power for 27 years, the AAP’s entering the fray has added a dash of drama to the poll scene. The AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal may not have rattled the game in the state but he has emerged as a conspicuous presence and unlike Congress has been able to set an alternative political discourse. For example, the BJP has been forced to react to his narrative about improving schools and healthcare facilities. But this hardly means that the BJP is on the defensive. In Gujarat, Modi remains the overarching leader, a son of the soil. Besides, the BJP’s ideology, Hindutva is now the reigning creed which all parties grudgingly or otherwise nod to.
Kejriwal, once a proponent of the so called post-ideological politics in the country, has chosen to rebrand himself as a Hindu leader. And as he tries to expand into Gujarat and looks set to step into the vacuum of a national opposition party left behind by a depleting Congress, his nods to the BJP’s ideological vision have become more noticeable.
There is now almost a tacit consensus on Hindutva in the country. And this makes the BJP even stronger as the party remains the sole authentic purveyor of the ideology. And no matter how much other parties hew closer to the BJP creed, they will always be seen as counterfeit, opportunistic copies of the original.
Despite a widely shared foregone conclusion about the outcome of Gujarat polls, a triangular context between the BJP, the AAP and the Congress has made Gujarat a centre of media attention. Congress has undergone some rejuvenation with the Rahul Gandhi’s padyatra which has drawn both attention and participation. But whether it translates into votes for the party remains a moot point. Congress is also reported to be mobilizing people in rural Gujarat where the BJP is believed to be not as strong as in urban areas. It will be interesting to see how ther AAP and the Congress eventually fare in Gujarat. In any case, the outcome of the elections in Gujarat will set the stage for 2024. So far, there is not a distant sign that even a combined opposition is in a position to take on the BJP. But then two years is a long time in politics. It is quite possible that a political alternative can come up which could give a tough fight to the BJP. But as of now it looks unlikely that PM Modi faces any major political challenge, either in Gujarat or at the national level.
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