Regional parties suit new States
Strong regional parties are more conducive for the consolidation and progress of the new States
Normally, it is the local party organisations that participate and drive elections to local bodies. But in the recent GHMC election, the BJP’s entire national leadership descended on Hyderabad in a furious raid to win.
The all-powerful Amit Shah, BJP president JP Nadda, UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Central Minister Prakash Javadekar, and many other bigwigs led the all-out raid. Even Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a backdoor appearance just before the election day through the Bharat Biotech route in a sudden overnight urge for reviewing the Covid vaccine preparation. And then, there was that wave to the people of Hyderabad! All this furious blitz, however, could not achieve the goal of winning a majority. Of course, it won many more seats than earlier.
Real and Forged
A lot has been said on the good and bad show of the BJP and the TRS. The TRS was in the GHMC saddle for the last four years and has been in the Assembly for seven years. Naturally, there would be some anti-incumbency — some real and some forged. So, it was unrealistic to expect the TRS to win 100 seats.
The ground situation at the time of election matters most. The performance or the contribution to the city’s upkeep and development by the parties is important. As the TRS was in power in the corporation, it was doing its duty. It was highlighting the importance of Hyderabad city for the State and envisaged several infrastructure development projects commensurate with it. It has implemented many of them and many more are in the pipeline. This is the reason why many foreign companies have set up shop here.
The BJP, as it had a small presence in the GHMC, did not do much. But, at the Centre, it had the ability to do much to help Hyderabad, yet it never did. It treated Telangana with condescension, especially in its attitude towards the State formation and in providing funds for its mega projects, despite recommendations of Central agencies.
The callous refusal to help the city in the recent unprecedented floods is the latest example. There was always a lukewarm approach to release even the statutory funds to the State. The local BJP also did not do anything to endear to the people of the city or the State. Forgetting all that, barging into the city with a big raid party at the last moment to win the Mayoralty is a farce. It has won in big number of seats with its propaganda machine, Hindutva nationalism, the presence of its many tinsel glitterati and by playing on the disgruntlement of certain sections of people. Though they were given more numbers, the people of Hyderabad have stopped them from grabbing the cake.
Weak Alone
Just because the BJP has won a majority at the national level, it thinks it has the suzerainty on all the States and tries to saffronise them in any election that comes in its way — whether local or State or national byelections. The BJP has won power only in a few States on its own. In a number of States, either it has a coalition pre or post forged with local parties. Or it splits the winning opposite parties and hitches with them to cobble up a government to play a dominant role in it, brushing it with saffron. Saffronisation is its main motto. This kind of political avarice for a ruling national party looks unseemly.
The BJP thinks just saffronisation is the sine qua non for development. First, it was the Gujarat model of development, where the per capita income (PCI) is around 11 in rank from 2001 to 2019. Their flagship States such as Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and MP too have more or less stagnated at the same low levels in the last 20 years.
The States are performing according to their inherent resources and strengths. Goa, Haryana, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu are performing better irrespective of the ruling party. The newest State Telangana is performing better than Gujarat since its formation in PCI and it is in the top 5-7 States in its macro development indicators.
We are all aware of the ‘story’ of economic development of India since 2014 and the fall in many world indexes like Human Development, Democracy, Press Freedom, etc. So what do saffronisation and economic model of the BJP actually offer, if it is not improving the GDP or the indexes of living standards and democratic credentials of the nation?
Little Impact
In the GHMC, the TRS is the single largest party and has 31 ex-officio members, but it cannot win the Mayor post without a partnership with the MIM or some strategic understanding with it. The TRS allying with the BJP or the BJP with the MIM is unlikely. So the BJP’s big dash appears to be a non-starter. If the MIM was not in the picture, the BJP could not have indulged in it.
The thinking that the BJP winning more seats will cause an upheaval in State politics seems to be a little far-fetched. If the BJP was a clear winner in the GHMC, it could have made some impact. Actually, the TRS was weak in the constituencies in and around the city even in 2014. The TDP’s presence in the city in the 2016 GHMC election and the TDP-dominated ‘mahakootami’ in the 2018 general election had changed the situation, making it pro-TRS. Hyderabad is a cosmopolitan city with heterogeneous groups and some of them are non-Telanganites. So the voting in the GHMC is impulsive, will change from election to election, depending on the political situation in the State and in the country.
The State elections are still three years away and the political situation can change a great deal by that time. Given the performance of the BJP in Modi 2.0, its political behaviour, floundering of its reforms and controversies like farm Acts, the strength and spread of the BJP in 2023 is anybody’s guess. Anyway, for the two new Telugu States, the BJP coming into their helm of affairs does not augur well. Strong regional parties of the present or new would be more conducive for the consolidation and progress of the new States.
(The author is a freelance journalist)
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