The latest round of elections -- regarded as semi-finals before the 2024 general elections -- are largely going in favour of BJP, a situation the party has attributed to its work over the last five years in four of the states. The party is set to retain the politically crucial Uttar Pradesh with a spectacular victory. It is looking at a comfortable win in Uttarakhand and declared that it will form the government in Goa with the help of three Independents. In Manipur, it is straddling the halfway mark.
In Uttar Pradesh, the party is ahead in almost 270 seats. While this is a reduction from the 320-plus seats it won in 2017, it still becomes the first party in the state to get a consecutive second term in more than three decades.
More importantly, the party has also pushed up its voteshare in the state by a significant 5 per cent per cent -- from 39.7 per cent in 2017 to current 45.3 per cent -- which is likely to stand it in good stead when the 2024 elections roll around. Uttar Pradesh, with 80 parliamentary seats, holds the key to power at the Centre.
"The people of Uttar Pradesh have showed their appreciation for the rule of law that's in place now, as well as the various welfare schemes of Prime Minister Narendra Modi," state law minister Brijesh Pathak told NDTV as the BJP headed for a record win in the state.
"The schemes made an improvement to their lives. Especially they felt that the BJP has established the presence of law and order in Uttar Pradesh, which is why the state as a whole, rose above the boundaries of caste, class and religion and united to vote in the BJP," added Mr Pathak, one of the BJP's key Brahmin faces in the state.
The question of Brahmins -- said to be upset after the selection of Yogi Adityanath, a Thakur for the post -- had raised concern in the BJP camp ahead of the election.
"We have uprooted the concept of anti-incumbency vote. We have done it at a national stage as well as at a state level,"said senior BJP leader Ranbir Singh Pathania, echoing Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who said ahead of elections that he has seen a "pro-incumbency".
In Uttarakhand, the BJP is ahead in 48 seats, which is down by 9, but still comfortably past the majority mark in the 70-seat assembly.
In Goa, the BJP score ticked up to 20 by evening, touching the halfway mark in the 40-seat assembly and said it will form government in the coastal state with the help of Independents.
In Manipur too, where the BJP formed government last time despite coming second to the Congress, the party has touched the halfway mark with leads in 30 seats in the 60-member assembly.
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