New Delhi: The anti-Congress tsunami hit the Hindi heartland on Sunday as the BJP and the AAP decimated the party in Delhi, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.
In Chhattisgarh, after a tense touch and go, the ruling BJP managed to stay in power.
The tsunami hit the national capital Delhi the hardest, ending the Sheila Dikshit era. In Rajasthan the party was unseated while in Madhya Pradesh the BJP march prevented Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindhia from becoming the CM.
This defeat has come at the most difficult time for the ruling Congress at the Centre. The allegations of Himalayan corruption and the arrogance of some its leaders seem to have handed out the Congress a humiliating defeat.
A section in the BJP is already attributing the 2013 assembly elections success to party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi. The section is also claiming that Modi wave has hit the Congress and its next target is the decimation of Congress in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.
Even though Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Vasundhara Raje and Raman Singh have won their respective states for the BJP, Modi supporters in the party are trying to project it as a vote for Modi. It is a fact that Modi had extensively campaigned for the party in all four states. Especially, he had focused more on Delhi.
But, the BJP has not done so well in Delhi. The AAP lost the battle to the BJP by a few seats. The AAP even scared the BJP to death in early trends by nearly taking the lead. The AAP also fought the election on the same issues Modi has been raising all over India.
But Chhattisgarh results have also put question marks over the Modi charisma. To an extent, the AAP has taken the sheen off Modi.
Bolstered by these victories, Modi will surely step up the attack on the Congress in the coming days. Modi might also be hoping that the fence sitters will also join the Modi bandwagon after seeing these results.
Whether the landslide for the BJP has something to do with Modi or not, he will tom-tom that it is his victory. All BJP chief ministers will have to accept it reluctantly.
The bigger question is what the Congress will do after this. As usual the party is desperately trying to keep the family away from taking the responsibility for the defeat.
Congress leaders Shashi Tharoor to Rajiv Shukla have defended party vice-president Rahul Gandhi saying that he is still the undisputed leader of the party.
Rahul Gandhi addressed more than a dozen public meetings in these four states. He took on Modi, finalised candidates list and approved the strategy. But, Congress leaders still believe that he can lead the party in the next Lok Sabha polls.
The party is trying to save its face saying that assembly polls are not a mandate on the centre. The party has also issued a statement blaming Sheila Dikshit for the defeat.
According to some political analysts, these results will force Congress chief Sonia Gandhi to take the centre stage keeping son Rahul away from his coterie accused of misguiding him. Many of her old loyalists feel neglected in the new system and they are sensing an opportunity in the crisis.
Realistically speaking, the Congress will have to rethink about its strategy if at all it wants to give a decent fight in the Lok Sabha polls.
It will be very difficult for the party to boost the sagging morale of its workers in the remaining 5-6 months, if it does not come out with a war plan.
But, the people who know how the Congress functions have no such expectations. They say the party is in a chaotic situation and can't expect any big solution.
It is expected that Narendra Modi - Rahul Gandhi face off will continue till the next Lok Sabha polls. But, the BJP led by Modi has a huge perception advantage over the Congress.
These results may even force the undecided voters to turn towards the BJP. Is everything over for the Congress? Only the Lok Sabha-2014 will tell.
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