Big UP Win Has Answered More Than One Question For BJP

New Delhi: Sunil Bansal had poured warm milk into a bowl of corn flakes when a worker rushed in to apprise Amit Shah's key aide in UP of the latest trends. It was only thirty minutes past eight, and a quiet and composed Bansal told the exited worker to calm down.

"Only postal ballots have been counted," he said.

By the time he had finished his breakfast, BJP had taken an unassailable lead over SP and BSP in UP, which obviously prompted a question about the next chief minister of UP.

"Parliamentary Board will decide that. But it's a huge responsibility especially in the run up to the next Lok Sabha polls," he said.

It was clear that in this hour of victory, the Sangh pracharak from the ABVP stock had his eyes clearly on general elections 2019.

The aam-aadmi space was something which Congress, for many decades, has well appropriated to itself. The grand old party this elections seems to have got a lifeline in Punjab and probably Goa, but for the Congress the current political situation presents an existential crisis like never before. Kejriwal will be off the back for a while now, but in politics, as in life, there is no vaccum.

Congress' USP has been its centrist positioning in the national politics. It has in the past demonstrated great flexibility to take both the Left and the Right of the centre along.

As for the two regional parties in UP, SP seems to be better placed to survive the shock defeat. Akhilesh Yadav has been in power for five years. His party will be the main opposition to the BJP in the Assembly.

But for Mayawati, this is the third rejection in five years that she has had to face from the electorate. Its social base is shrinking. With this strength, BSP will not be able to send even a single MP to the RS in the future.

BSP will have to think fast, and BSP will have to think beyond caste. BSP president Kanshi Ram for one never shied away from experimenting. In the last ten years there have been many occasions BSP could have participated in government outside UP by lending support. But that has not happened. BSP today in UP faces the threat of being reduced to a mere repository of Jatav votes.