On the other hand, the opposition camp is in full vigor. Rahul Gandhi is leading the front. The tone of the party speakers has also become sharp. The tone of Sonia Gandhi, who has almost retired from active politics, has also changed. Recently, she had told the party leaders that the current political environment is in Congress's favor. Hence, no laxity should be shown. Congress has also started its preparations in the election states.
In this connection, recently Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge and Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi visited Jammu and Kashmir and announced to contest the elections there along with the leaders of National Conference. Not only this, Rahul is also trying to create an atmosphere in favour of Congress by meeting the common people there, while BJP seems to be a victim of internal strife. That is why they had to withdraw the list of 44 candidates declared for Jammu and Kashmir.
Now it remains to be seen whether the country's oldest party remains lost in the hope of performing better than expected in the Lok Sabha elections or takes serious steps to strengthen itself afresh. The election schedule for Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir has been announced. After this, the turn of Maharashtra and Jharkhand will come. BJP is in power in Maharashtra and Haryana, while the opposition alliance led by JMM is in power in Jharkhand. Jammu and Kashmir is a President's state. In terms of power equations, BJP has a lot at stake in these elections because it has a lot to lose. It has been in power in Haryana for ten years.
Except for a brief hiatus in Maharashtra, it has been in power with allies for almost a decade. If we look at the performance in the Lok Sabha elections, the alarm bells have rung for the BJP here.
The party's poor performance in Maharashtra was also considered to be one of the reasons for falling short of an absolute majority. The Maratha reservation issue is also troubling them. Even with allies, they may have to struggle to keep their expressions right. In such a situation, they will have to face anti-incumbency as well as opposition unity as Uddhav Thackeray, Sharad Pawar and the Congress camp are still strongly engaged in election campaigning. The signs are not good for the BJP in Haryana either. They got only five seats in the Lok Sabha elections, while in 2019 they won all ten seats. Due to the farmers' movement and schemes like Agniveer, BJP is on the backfoot here. They will also have to face the anti-incumbency wave of ten years.
The party's hope here is on the mobilization of other castes against the dominant Jat community. Haryana has been one of the political laboratories of the BJP where the party has given priority to alternative leadership instead of caste dominance in the state.
However, last time too BJP did not get absolute majority in the state assembly. Despite the adverse conditions for the party here, one good thing from their point of view is that Congress does not seem united here and the party is divided into many camps. Also, to woo the Jats, the party has recently played the card of sending Kiran Chaudhary from Congress to Rajya Sabha. In terms of power prospects, the situation in Jharkhand is different than expected. Despite some defeats in the Lok Sabha elections, BJP has not been marginalized here.
However, the party suffered losses in ST seats. One reason for this could be that Hemant Soren's imprisonment may have given JMM some sympathy. Soren has now been released and is back in power.
Hemant, who replaced Champai Soren as the Chief Minister, is now planning to leave the party. This may benefit the BJP. On the other hand, the BJP is busy in rectifying all its irregularities. The party hopes that it will also benefit from the anti-incumbency trend against the JMM.
It is too early to say anything about Jammu and Kashmir, but it will be a litmus test for the BJP, where it will have to be seen how the people of the state take the new system that has developed after the removal of Article 370 and the end of full statehood. Situation. While the opposition has a lot of expectations from these elections, it will be a litmus test for the BJP.
The victory or defeat of the party will determine its position among the allies in the NDA. These elections will also be important for the internal politics of BJP because this public fatwa will affect the magic of the Modi-Shah duo and their choice in the election of the next president of the party. Overall, through these elections, the country's politics, which has been dominated by the BJP for a long time, is going to witness a political contest after a long time on the same political ground.