No single matter can make a strong foundation; the right reaction between multi-elements or matters can build a solid foundation.
If you go out on the streets of India and ask the same question, you will get replies such as:
- There is a Modi wave.
- BJP has RSS’ support.
- BJP’s Hindutva politics is working well.
- BJP has determined leadership.
- People don’t trust Congress now because of the past scams.
- There is no alternative other than Modi.
- Narendra Modi and Amit Shah’s leadership is the only reason behind the party’s success.
- They are trying to make Hindu Rastra, and therefore, the majority is favouring them.
- BJP is in power by killing democracy.
- BJP is pumping a huge amount of money for their marketing. And other political parties don’t have that kind of money. So, the youth of India and urban population knows only about BJP and Modi.
I don’t agree with these reasons. Yes, some of these reasons may partially be part of my perspective, but there is no single reason behind the solid foundation of BJP.
As I mentioned earlier, there is a multi-element reaction to the success of BJP in India.
Yes, BJP came at the right time with the charismatic leadership of Mr Modi. But the story begins before BJP was formed. That’s the story of their ideology. For any political party, their ideology plays a vital role in their success. There are some 750 political parties in India, but a handful of them are part of active politics. And just a few are well known to people.
People don’t take an interest in any political party because of leaders they have; people are more interested in stories and vision of their leaders. And the ideology of their party explains what’s needed to garner the trust and interest of people.
In the initial years of BJP, it was quite challenging for them to explain their ideology of “Hindutva”. I’m not going explain their ideology here, but it was explained brilliantly by our current Vice-president Shri Venkaiah Naidu Ji when he was a minister in the first term of NDA government.
BJP has succeeded in explaining its ideology to the laymen by various means, but still, some people believe BJP is pro-Hindu (Here, Hindu refers to religion) political party. Because of that, they are getting support from the majority of people. But according to me, their biggest challenge is to make those people believe in inclusive India.
Secondly, there is a small minority of non-Hindus (Here, Hindu refers to religion) which trusts the BJP, and this number of supporters is growing gradually.
Their ideology is impacting the people of India.
In any political party, there are three components:
- Leaders of the party.
- Active members of the party.
- Followers of the party.
We often hear this sentence from leaders of BJP, “Under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi…” So, they have the charismatic face of Modi. And people will agree with the difference of opinion on various issues that we have determined leadership.
Let’s not discuss the work of the government here, but let’s agree that political influence is getting more leaders and influential personalities in the party. We all know about the daily admission of new members before, during and after the Lok Sabha elections.
So, the increase in the number of active members is increasing the number of followers. And followers are the real wealth of any political party.
After the Lok Sabha elections, BJP had a membership drive, and that got BJP 3.78 crore new members. So, now they have about 15 crore members.
This is the reason BJP is strong on the ground. Followed by other miscellaneous aspects. I want to sum up my perspective with the following sentence:
BJP has succeeded in planting their ideology in the minds of the people, and therefore, they got the opportunity to influence and attract people to join them—enhancing their manpower which led to their solid foundation in Indian politics.
I’m leaving you with this wealth of political party, i.e., the followers.