BJP, Cong and AAP have reasons to rejoice but they can’t afford to ignore certain issues

Results of Assembly elections in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh and the MCD poll have pleased every party — at least, that’s what leaders of the BJP, Congress and AAP are saying. The BJP is happy that it won Gujarat with an unprecedented landslide. Evidently, the Morbi cable bridge collapse, which was a case of monumental incompetence and corruption, had little impact on the poll. Also

forgotten was the mismanagement during the deadly Delta wave of Covid-19. In the 2017 Assembly election, the saffron party had just managed to form Government with 99 seats, with the Congress not much behind with 77; this must have caused jitters in the BJP’s State unit. But Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, along with other top party leaders, spared no effort to register a handsome victory. In the MCD election, too, where the saffron party was estimated to win around 50 wards, it crossed the three-digit mark. This was again impressive, given 15 years of incumbency and its sub-optimal performance in local governance. While in both States, the BJP did better than what the exit polls had predicted, it was not so in Himachal. But again, given the magnitude of rebellion, the party did better than expected. For the Congress, the Himalayan State was the only bright spot as it shrunk in Gujarat and Delhi. But the win should come as a big morale booster for the party which has become accustomed to losing elections. Anti-incumbency and BJP rebels did help the Congress cause.

This is also Priyanka Vadra’s first success in electoral politics; this may occasion an increase in her role. AAP also has reasons to be pleased with the overall results. Of course, it didn’t get a landslide in MCD, but it won comfortably. Party boss Arvind Kejriwal had made tall claims about success in Gujarat but it didn’t reach the double-digit mark. Still, it was able to dislodge the BJP from the local bodies in Delhi against a spirited campaign by the saffron party. Satyendra Jain’s video clips, the charges against Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and AAP’s alleged involvement in Liquorgate did little to harm the party’s electoral prospects. Besides, AAP, by winning a few seats in Gujarat, has now graduated to becoming a national party. The three parties, however, should not lose sight of the challenges they will face. The grand old party can celebrate its victory in Himachal, but it should also be cognisant of the fact that its decline in several States is quite steep. In Gujarat, for instance, it got just about one-tenth of the seats that its arch-rival BJP got. The BJP must beware of the problem of rebellion, which seems to have been exacerbated because of the centralisation of powers in the party. And AAP has to look beyond freebies, which didn’t find many takers in Gujarat and Himachal.