BJP : All set for a clean sweep The NAMO, Amit Shah magic

All set for a clean sweep. Everything that can go right for the BJP and its allies have gone right and everything that can go wrong have gone wrong for the Congress and its allies under the UPA. The figure speaks for itself. Till 5 pm, the trend clearly showed that while the BJP was comfortably placed and leading in 288 Parliamentary Constituencies, the Congress could lead only in 49 seats. Top this off with the fact that the BJP had already bagged 14 seats by 5 pm while the Congress had won only 1 seat. More than clear that the 2019 Lok Sabha elections will go down as a lop sided fight with the Congress unable to even put up a spirited challenge. An important lesson that should be learnt here is, for the next five years it would do the Congress and its allies a whole lot of good to keep quiet and seriously study where and how they went so horribly wrong. Adding salt to the wound will be the outcome at Amethi, where AICC president Rahul Gandhi has reportedly conceded defeat to BJP’s Smriti Irani. The inroads that the BJP has been making into the North East region of the country continues with the party leading in at least 9 out of the 14 seats in Assam, earlier in the day. In Manipur too, the BJP is leading in the Inner Parliamentary Constituency with its candidate leading over the Congress candidate by a margin of 24, 303 votes at 5.30 pm on the day of vote count. In West Bengal too, the saffron party has reportedly made inroads into the stronghold of the AITC under Mamta Banerjee.
A second term in office for the BJP under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a certainty now. So while the Congress and its allies lick their wound, it should not be forgotten that the country needs a strong Opposition and the oldest political party in the country need to learn how to sit on the Opposition bench and do its homework, that is keep the party in power on its toes. If the showing in the just held Lok Sabha elections is any indication, then it is the plain but bitter truth that in the five years since 2014, the Congress refused to learn anything. What should not be forgotten is the bare fact that the country needs a strong Opposition and the Congress should now learn how to be a responsible Opposition party. A pity it is that the party which gave the Mahatma, Tilak, Gokhale  and other political stalwarts to the country should be reduced to such a status that the three figure mark is today like a mirage. The country has given its mandate and let it not be forgotten that the BJP this time will come with the baggage of the promises it failed to deliver in the first innings. This is where it would need to look back at its first stint in office and see how to plug the loopholes. The trend in Manipur and Assam too underlines the point that CAB did not figure high on the agenda of the voters but this is no reason why the BJP should not try to convince the people of the region that CAB is not against the interests of the North East.