Mandal after kamandal - BJP doubles down on Bihar

New Delhi: After the pran pratishtha of Ram Janmabhoomi Temple in Ayodhya political pundits are giving a landslide victory to Bharatiya Janata Party in the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls. However, Prime Minister Narendra Modi isn't seemingly taking any chances and has decided not to fall into a trap of overconfidence.

The saffron front's continued attempts at creating better social engineering to ensure more seats in the forthcoming general elections has continued with the bestowing of the nation’s highest civilian honour, Bharat Ratna, to political and social justice icon from Bihar, Karpoori Thakur. The move is aimed at another attempt to secure a vote share for the BJP amongst the underprivileged and socially marginalized in Bihar, where the saffron unit has been found wanting after the desertion of Janata Dal (United) from the saffron ranks.

Sources pointed out that despite the fulfilment of the Ram Janmabhoomi Temple promise the BJP isn't taking the support and unification of Hindu voters’ for granted in the upcoming polls.

Party leaders pointed out that the top saffron leadership is aware of historical examples when Hindu voters didn’t unite despite being provided with ample opportunity and reason.

“The most important example is when the Hindus couldn’t unite and throw out the government of Mulayam Singh Yadav. He won the Uttar Pradesh polls even after ordering the firing on karsevaks, in which hundreds of these are thought to have perished. Another example is when BJP lost polls in several states where its governments were dismissed by the Congress-led Centre, even after sacrificing saffron governments for the demolition of the disputed site and support for the Ram Temple movement,” sources pointed out.

Why is social engineering necessary for the BJP?

There is a feeling amongst the saffron leadership that the frenzy over the so-called Hindu unity is good and definitely will play a factor in the forthcoming polls. However, on the ground, the party knows that things aren’t as simple as are being perceived by the political analysts.

“It doesn't work in such a simple way. Not earlier, not today. Hence the need for social engineering experiments like bestowment of Bharat Ratna to Karpoori Thakur,” sources said.

The BJP knows pretty well that without winning Lok Sabha elections and securing a brute mandate, all its future agenda will be stalled. “Such moves are necessary to ensure that the socially underprivileged do not feel left out and are made a part of the ongoing developmental push of the Central government,” sources added.

This step has also put the JDU and its partner Rashtriya Janata Dal on a back foot as both these political units claim Thakur as their leading light on political ideology. The move also ensures that the BJP is able to stake claim to the legacy of the social justice icon for all future elections. The BJP, led by PM Modi, is expected to lay claim to the political and social legacy of Thakur during campaigning as has earlier been successfully demonstrated by the party in the case of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and Subhash Chandra Bose, who have been snatched away from the Congress and made saffron unit’s own.

The battle for Bihar is tough as the BJP aims to secure a maximum number of seats from its 40 Lok Sabha seats. The BJP-led NDA won a thumping victory in Bihar getting 39 of the 40 Lok Sabha seats in the 2019 general elections. But a lack of alliance, after Nitish Kumar walked out of NDA, is causing troubles for the party.

With BJP now in the driver’s seat, after consecration at Ram Janmabhoomi Temple in Ayodhya and the social engineering experiment, the saffron unit hopes to increase BJP’s present strength of seats in Bihar in 2024 Lok Sabha polls and hopes to contribute majorly towards the triumphant return of PM Modi for his third term in office.