Assembly poll results 2022: BJP wins a famous victory, but AAP’s rise is alarming

It is a positive sign that in the recently held elections, the BJP won the states that it is currently ruling, for two reasons: One, that the voting public is recognising that good governance matters; and two, the apparent decision by women to take a different path than their menfolk. To take the second point first, the BJP government has been focusing its efforts on simple (but profoundly important) things: Bringing electricity, cooking gas, and piped water everywhere, along with roads, internet connectivity and direct benefits transfer to bank accounts. These things make more of a difference than the hoopla associated with International Women’s Day. *** Also Read _**2022 Assembly poll results: Seven reasons why BJP won Uttar Pradesh**_ _**It all adds UP: Yogi Adityanath pulls off an incredible victory to trounce feisty Akhilesh and friends, Congress goes from bad to hearse**_ _**Uttar Pradesh Assembly Elections 2022: For Yogi Adityanath, the only way is UP, as he creates history**_ _**2022 Assembly poll results: AAP wins Punjab, test of ‘Delhi Model’ comes now**_ *** It was Grameen Bank that first posited that women are far more practical than men when it comes to day-to-day economics. They are keenly aware of what improves their lives, and the lives of their families; men tend to waste their earnings on idle, selfish pleasures like drinking and gambling, but women are eagle-eyed when they run household budgets or micro-enterprises such as raising a few chickens or goats. If the BJP has been able to capture the attention of women — and let us note this is not only Hindu women — it is something they can, as it were, take to the bank. It means their development efforts are working. It is a lasting advantage, and has a force-multiplier effect. At least in Kerala I have seen that women’s political opinions tend to influence their adult children’s votes as well. It is no longer true (if it ever was) that the patriarch controls who votes how. I say this while acknowledging that women sometimes vote for male candidates because they are ‘cute’, too (I heard this about Bill Clinton, despite the Monica Lewinsky effect). Maybe the BJP should cultivate a few telegenic Tejasvi Suryas, just in case. I am not being flippant, I have heard this sort of sentiment about, say, Shashi Tharoor. The other point, that the voting public is beginning to recognise good governance, is something that I have been hopeful about for a long time. I wrote years ago that India had all the necessary factors for growth, except for one: leadership. It is now apparent that Narendra Modi, and his chosen few, such as Yogi Adityanath, are providing that key, missing ingredient. Despite being dubbed, by some shady outfit called V-Dem (from Scandinavia, where else?) an ‘electoral autocracy’, it is apparent that Indian voters can and do make a difference with their votes. (Which reminds me of the disaster zone that Maharashtra is, but then that isn’t the voters’ fault, but post-election bungling by the BJP). It’s not clear that the self-congratulating West is better. For instance, the famous US election with the ‘hanging chads’. Or even the rather ‘unconventional’ means by which votes were cast and POTUS Biden was elected in 2020. No, I am not forgetting the murder and mayhem in West Bengal’s last election. UP has to be congratulated on this front: There was no violence at all. That brings me the second and third big stories of the day: the rise of the Aam Aadmi Party in Punjab, and the total eclipse of the Congress. I am unable to recall even a single good thing that the AAP did in Delhi. On the other hand, it caused all sorts of mayhem during the third wave of the Chinese virus by making wild statements and demands about oxygen supply, and by busing and dumping its UP-ite migrant labour on its borders. I also remember ill-advised populist promises to cancel electricity bills, offer women free rides on the Metro, and so on, and gigantic advertising budgets. I admit to a certain prejudice against Arvind Kejriwal right from the beginning. He aroused my political antennae, as there is a certain je-ne-sais-quoi about him, something I couldn’t put my finger on: maybe his vaulting ambition and willingness to make dubious moves. I saw this in the question of how he joined IIT Kharagpur without a valid JEE rank. I saw this in the way he unceremoniously dumped his mentor Anna Hazare when he ceased to be useful. And then there’s the Magsaysay Award, always a signal that a person is being groomed for bigger things. His associates, such as Yogendra Yadav and Kumar Viswas, didn’t excite me a lot either (but I do believe Viswas’ allegation that Kejriwal wishes to be prime minister of a certain new country, perhaps Khalistan, should be investigated seriously, as it is a matter of national security). I have been amazed by his party’s popularity in Delhi. I attributed it to peeved babus, unhappy that opportunities for graft have diminished, voting against the BJP. The fact that AAP has now won the restive border state of Punjab is disturbing. It has a disgruntled kulak population unhappy that their happy little games transferring public funds to private hands are now in jeopardy, and there are Khalistani moneys coming in from Canada and other parts unknown. An AAP-run Punjab will be, I fear, a prime target for subnational diplomacy as promised by Biden’s ambassador-designate to India, Eric Garcetti, who made a mess of Los Angeles and is being sent to India as some sort of purgatory. That is a fearsome prospect. Balkanisation looms, along with regime change. The decimation of the Congress is a little sad. Some commentators say “a strong Opposition is necessary in a democracy” with the implicit assumption that the Congress will provide that opposition. I do not believe the Congress has provided leadership either in power or in Opposition for years, or decades. So I would not shed any crocodile tears for its eclipse. The Congress has been variously an albatross around India’s neck preventing its growth, a personal vehicle for self-aggrandisement for certain people, or the fount of sweeping corruption and the decimation of the Bharatiya ethos. Its rule has been a kakistocracy, as well as a kleptocracy. And the absurd genuflection to the Nehru dynasty is reminiscent of the Kim Il Sung dynasty’s role in North Korea. The BJP is basically a centrist, or even a centre-Left party with some of the trappings of a Hindu party. As India rises in geopolitical and therefore civilisational terms, a true Opposition to the BJP would be provided by a solidly Right-wing Hindu party. There is no such entity on the horizon right now. The Congress certainly cannot fulfill that role. So its demise may not matter. Thus, even though the BJP managed a splendid win in UP, and overcame anti-incumbency in Goa, Uttarakhand and Manipur, the huge loss in Punjab makes it a mixed bag. The writer has been a conservative columnist for over 25 years. His academic interest is innovation. Views expressed are personal. Click here to know more about Assembly Elections 2022 Read all the Latest News , Trending News , Cricket News , Bollywood News , India News and Entertainment News here. 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