Instant Generator of Siddharth Varadarajan’s opinion columns: Subject: Congress-NCP loses power but BJP falls short of majority on its own in Maharashtra. Siddharth Varadarajan’s column: In a blow to Narendra Modi, who has come to symbolize personality cult and centralized power, the BJP failed to capture power in Maharashtra. The saffron party fell short of majority on its own in what is seen as a clear snub to its ambitious strategy of jettisoning its regional allies and emerging as a dominant political force in the states. The setback comes against the backdrop of Modi investing high stakes in the state Assembly elections and carrying out campaigning almost single-handedly, raising serious questions over the relevance of state leadership. The key western state will now face a piquant situation where two Hindutva parties will compete for share of power. The biggest take-away from the just-concluded Assembly polls is that BJP, as a political organisation, has willingly subjugated itself to the authoritarian hold of a single leader, a central command from which the power flows. The inherent danger of such an arrangement is that once the aura of invincibility of the supreme leader melts, the entire structure crumbles like a pack of cards. It must be pointed out that though BJP came to power at the Centre in the recent general elections, a majority of Indian voters did not vote for the party. The solution, therefore, lies in the secular forces, now gasping for breath, coming together as a cohesive force to stop the marketing blitzkrieg of Modi and his well-oiled machinery of supporters. The Bihar experiment, where Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad Yadav buried their hatchet and successfully emerged as an alternative force, may well show the way for the rest of India.
Posted on: Thu, 16 Oct 2014 04:48:52 +0000
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