BJP’s Arrogance on Alert

Three political events that occurred in March 2018 left the country stunned: (i) the unceremonious end of the 25-year-long unbroken rule of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI[M]) in Tripura, (ii) the subsequent toppling of Vladimir Lenin’s statues by Hindutva vandals in jubilation over the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) victory in the north-eastern state, and (iii) the surprise defeat of the BJP by the Samajwadi Party (SP)–Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) alliance in the bypolls of Uttar Pradesh (UP) and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) in Bihar. The first event was met with disbelief, the second with aversion, and the third with a sense of relief, by a majority of Indians who are angry with the BJP’s arrogance and misrule. 

In the last four years, the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has formed governments in six of the seven north-eastern states, waiting to dislodge the Congress in Mizoram in the forthcoming assembly elections later in 2018. The studied focus of the BJP on these states—in contrast to the listless Congress—had prepared people for its sweep of the North East. Yet, it was too much to expect the BJP to rout the CPI(M) in Tripura, almost the last bastion of the communists.