BJP’s footprint goes down to 35% from a high of 70% in Dec 2017

The loss in Jharkhand, as even the normally pro-BJP TV channels were forced to highlight, reduced BJP’s footprint in the country from 70% to 35% in a matter of just two years. The map of India looked almost completely saffron in December 2017.

In December 2019, barring Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Goa, Karnataka and the North-East, BJP is almost nowhere in power. But the party continues to pretend that it is the voice of 1.3 billion Indians.

And in Jharkhand, it seems to have paid for its arrogance and overconfidence. Barely two months ago, at the beginning of November, BJP was confidently predicting it would win 65 seats in the Assembly. By counting day party leaders were pointing to ‘voting percentage’ and claiming that it would still be able to form the government.

The BJP on Monday would have rued its decision to contest the Jharkhand Assembly election alone and junk its ally AJSU. The two together had bagged 43 seats in 2014. This time, fighting separately, their combined tally seemed unlikely to cross 28.

In contrast, the JMM, Congress and the RJD had paid the price in 2014 by contesting the Assembly election independently. They could bag only 25 seats then between themselves.

The BJP may also have rued contesting the election on national issues. Kashmir, Triple Talaq and NRC were not on the minds of the voters, it would seem. Nor was Ram Mandir and the PM’s blatant attempt to communalise protests against the CAA and NRC.

Party insiders also concede in private that Amit Shah made the mistake of not fighting the election under a leader other than Das. In retrospect they believed that not paying any heed to criticism of the Chief Minister’s handling of issues by his own cabinet minister, Sarayu Roy, was a mistake.

The party denied the rebel leader the party ticket, prompting him to contest against the Chief Minister from Jamshedpur East and defeat him by a comfortable margin of 10,000 votes.

Party president Amit Shah, who picked Yogi Adityanath to be Chief Minister in Uttar Pradesh, claimed that Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das, like other BJP chief ministers, was selected on considerations of merit. Shah supported Das and ignored complaints against him even from within the party.