Despite his whole hearted blitzkrieg in campaigning for the BJP in Karnataka, Modi may have at best saved his ‘New BJP’ from coming in 3rd in the Karnataka Assembly Elections this May 2023.
The utter chaos (meant corruption at every level beyond all bounds) in administration under a puppet regime (this was not Gujarat!), and the rank poor governance that Karnataka saw in this term of the BJP GoK was beyond salvage.
But what was startling was not so much the civic apathy but the undelivered promises of Modi – Good Governance & Anti-Corruption – that hit the BJP hard. Coupled with the second time the Modi-Shah side-lined BSY, it seemed that the BJP hadn’t learnt the lesson from the first time they did it! No amount of kicking BSY upstairs to the Parliamentary Board was going to assuage his caste following. BSY didn’t even have to ‘appear’ antogonistic.
All of this gave way for jokes on Modi himself and the BJP, not just on social media but in hushed conversations too.
Modi needs strong state level leaders. But that is anathema to his character (see this and also this) and sadly the party has been successfully smothered and left with boot lickers. Hand picked Bommai is an example.
Net result? The BJP lost. Buit even more importantly, Modi’s image was punctured badly for the first time in a major state. Forays into the South is now far away.
@jsvasan