The Modi Magic
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: May 17, 2014 -

BJP Party's Prime Ministerial candidate and Gujarat CM Narendra Modi arrives at Imphal :: 08 Feb 2014 :: Pix - Deepak Oinam

The magic of Modi has worked and BJP has scripted a new history in the political journey of India.

Proving all the prophets of doom wrong, BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi has catapulted his party to power after 10 long years in the opposition with the biggest mandate for any single-party in the country since 1984.

The absolute majority for his party on its own is a first in 30 years.

This is also for the second time in the country that an opposition party has come to power in such a manner, the earlier being the 1977 elections which was held after the infamous Emergency era that brought Janata Party to power.

With this historic win in the 16th Lok Sabha elections, BJP will now be coming to power at the Centre for the fourth time since it was founded in 1980 after the split in the Janata Party.

Its first government on its own in 1996 lasted just 13 days.

In 1998, the next government of the BJP via the NDA route lasted 13 months while in 1999 it again came to power leading the NDA in the backdrop of the Kargil conflict with the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee projecting it as a victory over Pakistan.

But even in that election, the largest number of seats that BJP could win was just 182. So, does this mean that the magic of Modi is even more effective than that of Vajpayee?

Of course, the rise and the fall in the game of political see-saw are inevitable.

But what was really interesting in this election was that the magic of Modi and BJP, which has long been described as a political party that is active only in the 'cow-belt', has swept the entire western belt by bagging some 120 out of the 130 seats in Maharashtra, Goa, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.

Not so long ago; none could have been able to imagine how the BJP-Shiv Sena combine would virtually decimate the Congress-NCP alliance in Maharashtra.

But stalwarts like Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde have fallen short far behind in front of the Modi magic.

BJP has successfully prevented the ruling Congress party from winning even a single seat in seven States or win more than 10 seats in any State.

It is also to the credit of Modi that BJP has got all the 26 seats in Gujarat, which is a feat achieved for the first time by any political party in the country.

However, all these near-impossible accomplishments have shown that there is more to this Modi magic than mere discontentment of the people against the failed policies of the ruling Congress party.

Lack of credible leadership and political instability are two crises that the people have suffered for long.

And, Modi has capitalised on this by sparking the imagination of the people as their saviour.

But whether the magic of Modi really works would be known from his efforts towards ensuring political stability, economic growth and transparency in governance, the three promises he has made to the people all along.