The Week India – July 14, 2019

40 THE WEEK • JULY 14, 2019

POLITICS

BJP

THE BJP’S SHINING victory in the

Lok Sabha polls had a big black blot

the size of Andhra Pradesh.

Th e party was so severely drubbed

in the state that it scored less than 1

per cent votes in both the assembly

and Lok Sabha elections held simul-

taneously there. Not only did the BJP

lose seats it had won in 2014, it also

got less than six lakh votes combined.

Embarrassingly, the party claims to

have 25 lakh members in the state.

Th e BJP, however, has turned the

poll drubbing into a perception

victory. Within a month after the

results, four Rajya Sabha members

of the Telugu Desam Party, the main

opposition party in Andhra Pradesh,

were inducted into the BJP. With

Jaganmohan Reddy, chief minister

and YSR Congress president, going

after TDP president N. Chandrababu

Naidu, many in the TDP are seeking

shelter in the saff ron camp.

Despite drawing a blank in the

polls, the BJP is projecting itself as the

main opposition party in the state.

“People of the state wanted the BJP,”

said Sunil Deodhar, the BJP’s na-

tional secretary in charge of Andhra

Pradesh. “But they voted to defeat

Naidu. Now many leaders are joining

us. What brings them to us is that

Th e BJP’s new expansion plan is

designed to fragment, rather than

fi nish off , opposition parties

BY PRATUL SHARMA

Dissent,

disintegrated

they know they will not be able to win

on their own.”

Th e BJP’s lightning moves have

stunned opponents in other states as

well. In West Bengal, six legislators of

the ruling Trinamool Congress and

hundreds of councillors have joined

the BJP. In Maharashtra, Radhakr-

ishna Vikhe Patil quit as the leader of

opposition in the assembly to join the

ruling BJP. Many of his former Con-

gress colleagues are likely to follow

suit before the assembly elections

later this year.

In Haryana, fi ve Indian Nation-

al Lok Dal (INLD) legislators have

joined the ruling BJP, while the

resignation of two Congress MLAs in

Karnataka has left the Congress-JD(S)

government on shaky ground. Delhi,

where assembly polls are due early

next year, has also seen leaders quit-

ting the ruling AAP to join the BJP.

At play in all these states is Amit

Shah’s scorched-earth policy. Th e

Union home minister and BJP presi-

dent works towards not just election

victories, but also mentally overpow-

ering opponents. His sharp message

in Andhra Pradesh was for Naidu,

who had quit the BJP-led National

Democratic Alliance a year ago and

was planning to play kingmaker in

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PLANS

Under Modi

and Shah, the

BJP is focusing

on building on

its strengths