It was in 1991 that I was first becoming aware of the political buzz going on in the country. I was 9 years back then mand it was a period of intense political churning caused by the fall of Chandrasekhar govt, assasination of Rajiv gandhi, Mandal & Kamandal. There was buzz about Bharatiya Janata Party even in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, where I hail from.
The next five years were very eventful starting with liberalization of economy,Ayodhya movement and babri masjid demolition, lots and lots of scams ranging from fertilizer scan, telecom scam(sukh ram), hawala scam etc. That was when BJP started becoming more of a household name.
As a youngster, I used to hear arguments from elders that BJP will never come to power as it is a north Indian party with a paltry presence in south India and that it was too right of center to be able to become a ruling party. Then came the 1996 elections, where BJP was the since largest party, though way away from the simple majority mark of 272. vajpayee govt came and left within a span of 13 days, which was followed by united front govts headed by deve gowda and ik gujral.
The instability of the United front govt, political compulsions and efforts of BJP slowly started paving way for more alliances across India. They found alliance partners like Rama Krishna Hegde in Karnataka, Naveen Patnaik in Odisha and Trinamool Congress in West Bengal, ADMK in Tamil Nadu in addition to the existing alliance partners like SAD, Shiv Sena and Samata party. Then came the 1998 elections, with BJP emerging as the single largest party and in a striking distance of power through the alliances it had built. Vajpayee became the prime minister for second time and ws able to win the confidence vote by mustering post poll support of parties like INLD and TDP. This was the first rubicon that was crossed. Yes, BJP was able to form a govt at center through a collation of different parties.Though this govt survived only for 13 months, the NDA govt that came to power in 1999 did complete its tenure.
Now the goalposts has changed with arguments that BJP will never be able to form a govt by itself as it is way away from getting a majority by itself. Two tenures of UPA did create the necessary ignition power needed for BJP to cross the majority by itself in 2014.
In the immediate aftermath of the 2014 elections, we have started hearing voices that the full majority given to BJP was the result of despicable governance provided by UPA and that 2019 will not be on similar lines. When the time for change comes, as the election date nears, the strength of the wave .
increases. The necessary groundwork for the same has already been done by BJP. When have you seen a prime minister getting close to a normal man, like Narendra Modi. Through initiatives like jan dhan accounts, swach bharat,ujwak yojana, farmer support,dbt etc, he made sure that the lives of poor are impacted in a way that is easy to quantify. Apart from this he maintained a connect with the people through public meetings, Mann ki Baat etc. When did we ever see a prime minister talking about issues that effect the lives of common man of the country ranging from exam, cleanliness etc.This has made him maintain a remarkable chord with the citizens, making this election a battle between modi and the rest in all the 543 constituencies. The result in states like kerala, bengal is going to reveal the impact of this greater connect, which is being missed by the radars of journalists.
The next five years were very eventful starting with liberalization of economy,Ayodhya movement and babri masjid demolition, lots and lots of scams ranging from fertilizer scan, telecom scam(sukh ram), hawala scam etc. That was when BJP started becoming more of a household name.
As a youngster, I used to hear arguments from elders that BJP will never come to power as it is a north Indian party with a paltry presence in south India and that it was too right of center to be able to become a ruling party. Then came the 1996 elections, where BJP was the since largest party, though way away from the simple majority mark of 272. vajpayee govt came and left within a span of 13 days, which was followed by united front govts headed by deve gowda and ik gujral.
The instability of the United front govt, political compulsions and efforts of BJP slowly started paving way for more alliances across India. They found alliance partners like Rama Krishna Hegde in Karnataka, Naveen Patnaik in Odisha and Trinamool Congress in West Bengal, ADMK in Tamil Nadu in addition to the existing alliance partners like SAD, Shiv Sena and Samata party. Then came the 1998 elections, with BJP emerging as the single largest party and in a striking distance of power through the alliances it had built. Vajpayee became the prime minister for second time and ws able to win the confidence vote by mustering post poll support of parties like INLD and TDP. This was the first rubicon that was crossed. Yes, BJP was able to form a govt at center through a collation of different parties.Though this govt survived only for 13 months, the NDA govt that came to power in 1999 did complete its tenure.
Now the goalposts has changed with arguments that BJP will never be able to form a govt by itself as it is way away from getting a majority by itself. Two tenures of UPA did create the necessary ignition power needed for BJP to cross the majority by itself in 2014.
In the immediate aftermath of the 2014 elections, we have started hearing voices that the full majority given to BJP was the result of despicable governance provided by UPA and that 2019 will not be on similar lines. When the time for change comes, as the election date nears, the strength of the wave .
increases. The necessary groundwork for the same has already been done by BJP. When have you seen a prime minister getting close to a normal man, like Narendra Modi. Through initiatives like jan dhan accounts, swach bharat,ujwak yojana, farmer support,dbt etc, he made sure that the lives of poor are impacted in a way that is easy to quantify. Apart from this he maintained a connect with the people through public meetings, Mann ki Baat etc. When did we ever see a prime minister talking about issues that effect the lives of common man of the country ranging from exam, cleanliness etc.This has made him maintain a remarkable chord with the citizens, making this election a battle between modi and the rest in all the 543 constituencies. The result in states like kerala, bengal is going to reveal the impact of this greater connect, which is being missed by the radars of journalists.
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