The Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday claimed that it is now the only pan-Indian party as the Congress is ‘shrinking’ by the day and identified coastal states spanning from West Bengal to Tamil Nadu and Kerala for its growth, asking workers to prepare the organisation for ‘big gains’ there in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
A resolution, ‘BJP is the party of Bharat’s present -- It will be the party of Bharat’s future’, passed at its National Executive meeting here said it is emerging as the natural party of governance in many states and all the other parties have limited regional presence amid the decline of the main opposition party.
Referring to party’s win in Assam and rise in its vote share in Kerala and West Bengal, and ‘unequivocal rejection’ of the Congress by voters in the recent assembly polls in five states, it said the National Executive notes with ‘pleasure’ that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call for ‘Congress-mukt Bharat’ has today become a ‘people’s mission’.
BJP’s win in Assam signifies a ‘major ideological victory’ for it, the resolution said, adding it came against the backdrop of ‘the threat of demographic invasion the state has faced from an unchecked infiltration from neighbouring Bangladesh for decades’.
‘It has reached Himalayan proportions and signalled a death-knell to Assam’s identity… Successive governments turned a blind eye to this problem with an eye on their vote banks.
‘That is why the National Executive doesn’t look at this victory in the assembly elections as just another electoral victory alone. It signifies a major ideological victory for the party. We dedicate this victory to Ma Kamakhya, river Brahmaputra and Shrimant Shankaradeva -- the symbols that epitomise Assamese identity,’ it said.
Speaking of its performance, the party said, ‘The BJP is today the only pan-Indian party in the country. The BJP is also emerging as the natural party of governance in many states too. Congress is shrinking by day and all the other parties have limited regional presence only.’
Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, however, rejected suggestion that the party expected unipolar politics in the country, saying it was not possible in an electoral democracy.
‘We don’t believe that politics should be or can be unipolar. There is always some opposition party,’ he said.
The resolution credited two years of ‘people-friendly’ governance of Modi coupled with his extensive campaign during the elections as largely responsible for the favourable results in the elections.
The executive also conveyed its thanks to Modi for his government’s performance and party chief Amit Shah for his leadership.
‘The singularly resounding message of this round of assembly elections has been the comprehensive and unequivocal rejection of the Congress party by the voters in different states. In Assam and Kerala, where they were the ruling party, the electorate has shown a big thumbs-down to them. They were rejected in other two major states -- West Bengal and Tamilnadu also.
‘In fact people have not only rejected the Congress party but also severely punished those who have aligned with them in a most duplicitous manner in their greed for power,’ it said referring to the alliance between Congress and the Left in Bengal while they were main rivals in Kerala.
‘Popular message from this round of elections is that they reject not only the Congress party but the brand of politics associated with it. Congress-mukt Bharat for us is not merely about defeating Congress at the hustings everywhere, although that will be the primary objective of our party.
‘It also means ridding country of the Congress brand politics -- corruption, nepotism, politics of inheritance and blue blood, arrogance and non-accountability, politics of obstructionism and vote banks,’ it said.