No, don’t go by Modi’s ‘churidar’. The Prime Minister is not afraid. It’s just that he and the BJP haven’t so far got a grip on the Odisha grassroots. Every time Jay Panda tells him he has, he’s conveyed the harsh truth at the ballots. Now, as Uttar Pradesh squats on Modi’s 2022 horoscope, comes news of rural Odisha’s stark preference for regional outfit BJD.

The BJD took a commanding lead right away and it was curtains for the all the competition including the BJP. A genuine sweep, affirming again the trend that regional parties everywhere were blotting national political parties into irrelevance with acidic and alkaline disdain.

The trend reaffirms the script that voters at the local, state and national levels may vote differently for all they care. In Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, for instance, the parties that won the states also won the grassroots, i.e., the YSRC and the DMK took the local bodies, too. The 2020 Kerala gram panchayat elections went to the CPM, and it’s not that the CPM has a national presence as it once used to.

Suffice to say that national parties BJP and the Congress are being squeezed out of the grassroots’ conscience. Like BR Ambedkar’s conscience-keepers say, as long as there’s freedom of conscience, fundamental and electoral rights will keep democracy protected. Nowadays, the freedom of conscience is being juxtaposed with Article 25 over which there is a shadow of the hijab!

Forget that, what is getting clear is that from Tamil Nadu in the south to West Bengal in the east, in every corner of India, the grassroots is voting for regional parties casting national parties BJP and Congress into shrinking brackets of irrelevance. What should be made of this trend, is this good omen or does it portend a dark future for the cohesion and unity of the country?

Of course, like they say, there is unity in diversity. And Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is partial to the "Union of States". Of note, however, is the Aam Aadmi Party is striving to shed its regional tag, seeing that it has failed to take strides out of Delhi though not for lack of trying. AAP’s earlier attempts in Goa and Punjab went for naught. March 10 will tell if AAP finally makes the cut.

That being said, some people say, only winning the local bodies is proof of a national party. So, the question remains, whether the Aam Aadmi Party is a “regional outfit” or a “national party”? AAP has not captured the local bodies of Delhi as yet. Unlike in Tamil Nadu, where the DMK barrelled out the opposition with ruthless disdain. It scored 43.59 percent of the vote share, leaving the AIADMK in the troughs.

The BJP won a few wards, happy tidings for its state unit chief K Annamalai. That said, the story is no different from the template: Regional parties are the bull and the bear in the states. This should not surprise Modi and the BJP, which has high hopes in Telangana, where KCR outfit TRS is facing a BJP challenge. KCR’s manner of handling the crisis is to go for the head; in this case, Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The only state where the BJP won the grassroots, i.e., the local bodies, was in Tripura, where political violence was at a maximum. Before that the saffron party tasted mud in the West Bengal local bodies’ elections where, again, the spectre of violence was the sole calling card of all political parties. But, again refusing to buck the trend, regional party the All India Trinamool Congress took the spoils.

The TMC has since gone national with a foot in the regional boat also. Mamata Banerjee is part of KCR’s phalanx to unseat Modi in 2024, and she's also aide and pillar in the Samajwadi Party’s all-out battle to evict Yogi-Modi from Uttar Pradesh. It can be said with certainty that the challenge to the BJP and to Prime Minister Narendra Modi is coming from the grassroots of India. (IPA Service)