Tripura truth
   Date :30-Nov-2021

Tripura truth_1 &nbs
 
 
IF THE Opposition parties are not able to extract the right message from the truth from the latest Tripura elections that gave the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) an unprecedented triumph in the local body elections, then they are not worth the salt. The BJP won as many as 329 out of 334 seats from 14 local bodies and mocked at all those dirty machinations the Opposition parties and other vested interests launched to malign the BJP in Tripura as well as all over the country. Cooking up absolutely fake stories about so-called organised Hindu violence against Muslims, these vested interests tried to set the larger Indian society across the country on communal fire. Though the truth was bared in no time, they continued to talk the same nonsense, with a sole aim of maligning the BJP in Tripura and then defeat it in the local body elections. All that proved to be a dirty day-dream that failed to work. But if the Opposition is not in a position to learn the right lessons from Tripura -- before legislative elections in five States in the next some time, then they should quit politics. The political story from Tripura really has many lessons to offer.
 
The first and most important lesson is that the ruling BJP had achieved a right kind of political and administrative mix in Tripura to give people what they deserved -- a truly good Government beyond stupid political narrative pushed by the Opposition that tried to give a fundamentalist and negative colour to electoral politics. That did not work. Even the reign of communal violence masterminded by the vested interests across the country also did not click. And the outcome of the elections is stunning for the Opposition. This is the straight-forward message from Tripura. The loudest noise about the electoral battle in Tripura was made by Ms. Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress (TMC) that is now trying to expand its footprint nationwide. But what the TMC got in return was a shock of having to walk away with only one seat. This shows that outside West Bengal, the TMC is a non-entity and its supremo Ms. Mamata Didi Banerjee cannot claim a national following in any manner.
 
A more or less similar picture is slated to be available even in Goa that, too, would go to polls in the next some time. In Goa, the TMC is pitching in great thrust, but with little hope of denting the existing political framework, thanks to the strength the ruling BJP enjoys there. In the next some time, States like Uttar Pradesh and Punjab, too, would go to polls and will offer a more or less similar picture. In Uttar Pradesh, the electoral battle may assume some interesting angles with former Chief Minister Mr. Akhilesh Yadav making a strong bid to return to power. However, given the popularity of incumbent Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, not much can be expected of the so-called Opposition thrust. In Punjab, thanks to the confused mindset of the Congress party and its failure to project a right kind of leadership as the party’s face, the electoral picture certainly promises to throw up an altogether different outcome. For, the most critical element in Punjab is the former Chief Minister and heavyweight politician Mr. Amarinder Singh. Elections in Punjab, therefore, are going to offer many surprises to the nation.
 
A detailed look at the overall picture, thus, offers us good enough of a clue as to how the voters would behave in the elections in the next some time and thence in 2024. It is more than obvious that the BJP is consolidating its political position everywhere and all that effort is going to reflect positively for its election campaigns. As against this, the Opposition still does not appear to emerge from its own collective incompetence. It appears to have run out of ideas and is harping on old-fashioned, divisive politics by inciting communal violence etc to divide the voters -- though in the name of combating what it describes derisively as polarisation. In fact, it is the Opposition that is driving the nation to a hard polarisation, and not the BJP. But the cantankerous Opposition appears to have lost its sense of proportion and balance, which is so visible in all the Opposition politics. The message from Tripura, too, is on the similar lines.