Despite Punjab, HP, Delhi defeats, BJP gets ready for 2024 riding on G20

DEEPIKA RATHOUR

New Delhi, Dec 25 (IANS) Year 2022 has been a roller-coaster ride for Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The year witnessed the ruling BJP's fight to maintain the dominance in the Parliament and state assemblies.

Out of all BJP bagged own record breaking win in Gujarat, won Uttar Pradesh, Goa, Manipur and Uttrakhand. BJP also toppled down the Shiv Sena Government in Maharashtra, and formed alliance government there.

The action-packed year saw BJP's victories in high-stakes state polls, tussle over chief minister posts, Congress campaign to 'unite the country', maritime show of strength, and India's G20 presidency.

BJP lost two states- Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, and crucial Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) elections. However, it was important for the BJP to win in Himachal Pradesh as party President J.P. Nadda and Union Minister Anurag Thakur hail from the hill state. The Himachal Pradesh outcome is instructive of the latent anti-incumbency that the BJP faces, and the Opposition's occasional capacity to harness it.

In MCD, it was a direct fight with Aam Adami Party (AAP), which rules in Delhi. Winning MCD 2022, AAP broke the streak of BJP maintained from last 15 years. This is also a major setback for BJP.

After losing these elections, BJP got a shot in the arm as it retained the government in Gujarat and now has kickstarted its preparation for 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

A two-day meeting in Delhi organised by the BJP for its national office-bearers, functionaries in charge of states and various frontal organisations, and presidents and general secretaries in charge of the organisation in states is being seen as a stock-taking exercise by the party.

The Lok Sabha elections are more than a year away but the BJP has geared up keeping itself busy on the ideological and organisational fronts, and dominating at the macro and micro levels.

The BJP may never have felt as secure as it is today about the public acceptance of its Hindutva ideology. The inauguration of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, now scheduled for December 2023, will be a prelude to the 2024 campaign anyway.

The party will be facing some crucial Assembly elections in 2023 in Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh, where it is in power, and in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, which it wants to wrest back. Speculations are rife that J.P. Nadda, whose term as president ends in January, will remain in charge in the run-up to the 2024 general elections.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged BJP leaders to ensure that India's Presidency for the G20 Summit be made an inclusive event, as it is an opportunity to showcase the country's culture and diversity. He also asked the party leaders to make every Indian feel proud of this achievement and make them also a participant of this historic occasion.

G20 is also a great platform for BJP to solid the people's confidence in its favour. Success of G20 meet may give an edge to BJP in Lok Sabha election in 2024. Construction of Ayodhya's Ram Temple floor, where Lord Ram will be seated, will also be completed by the end of 2023, that again could be a bonus point for BJP.