Bharatiya Janata Party started the year 2022 with a week-long Guru Ravidas Jayanti celebrations eyeing the vast Dalit votes in all the poll-bound States and ended with a spectacular win in Gujarat. The year witnessed elections in seven states out of which the saffron party won five with a thumping majority and surprising many pollsters.
The duo of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah along with the brigade of Union Ministers, MPs, MLAs, chief ministers, local leaders, party workers participate in every election like a do-or-die situation. Not leaving any space for the Opposition, the party uses all its might to trounce upon the other party.
As this most favourable year comes to an end with a mood of triumph, except minor 'threats' like AAP's 'National Party' status and an emerging camaraderie of Modi-haters from Congress's Bharat Jodo Yatra, BJP had everything that it wanted to have to get itself prepared for the 2023 State elections and the mega 2024 fight for the Lok Sabha during the past 12 months.
A quick review of how the Party managed to get the maximum out of 2022.
State Assembly elections
The BJP won Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Manipur, Goa and Gujarat Assembly elections this year. Yogi Adityanath became the first BJP chief minister to get a second term. Battling all odds, Pushkar Singh Dhami won 47 seats in the 70-member Assembly.
In the Manipur polls, BJP scripted a stupendous electoral victory by getting the absolute majority. The party won 32 of the 60 seats, and Nongthombam Biren Singh was sworn in as the chief minister for the second time.
Without any strong face and battling anti-incumbency, the BJP won Goa with 20 seats out of 40. After the death of former chief minister Manohar Parrikar, there has been a void in the coastal state.
But it was the landslide victory of the BJP in Gujarat that shattered all records. The party won 156 seats in the 182-member Assembly with Congress losing the status of the Opposition party in the Assembly. The BJP equalled the record of the previous CPM government in West Bengal of forming the government for the seventh straight term.
President and Vice President
Not just state polls, the party got its people on the two coveted posts in the country -- President and Vice President. India got its first tribal President in Droupadi Murmu, who won the presidential polls with a thumping majority.
For the Vice President, the BJP nominated former West Bengal governor Jagdeep Dhankar. He also won the elections comfortably, the courtesy rift in the Opposition.
Apart from these polls, the BJP won several bypolls and put up a tough show in the recently concluded Delhi municipal corporation polls. The party won 104 wards out of 250 even after ruling the civic body for 15 years.
Senior leaders joining BJP
Several senior leaders from the opposition parties joined the BJP. Some of the prominent ones are - Jyotiraditya Scindia, Jitin Prasada, RPN Singh, Hardik Patel, Alpesh Thakor and others.
Also, former Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh merged his party with the BJP.
In-roads in southern states
After a stronghold in North, North-east, West, and Central India, the saffron party is trying to make in-roads in southern states. In the Telangana bypolls, it challenged K Chandrasekhar Rao. The party is working on increasing its strength and several leaders from the opposition parties have joined the BJP.
Parliament strategy
While a united Opposition tries to corner the government over a host of issues in the Parliament, the BJP has a back-up plan and crush the Opposition. The weak Opposition hardly manages to get a discussion on any issue and bills are passed one after another.
Loss of govt in Bihar and gain in Maharashtra
While Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar once again severed ties with the BJP, the saffron party formed the government in Maharashtra along with Eknath Shinde.
June saw numerous political developments in Maharashtra as Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government was toppled after Shiv Sena MLA Eknath Shinde along with 48 other MLAs joined hands with the BJP.
Shinde became the chief minister with the support of BJP and State BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis took oath as deputy chief minister.
However, in Bihar, Nitish broke up the alliance with the BJP and joined hands with Rashtriya Janata Dal and Congress to form the Mahagathbandhan government. Nitish took oath as the Chief Minister and RJD's Tejashwi Yadav as his deputy.
The road ahead
The BJP has already started preparing for the 2023 state polls in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. It lost all three states in the 2018 polls but managed to topple the Kamal Nath government in Madhya Pradesh. BJP's Shivraj Singh Chouhan was once again sworn in as the chief minister.
The party is also preparing for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and is focussing on bellwether seats in every state.
(Edited by : CH Unnikrishnan)
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