BJP's Farming Headache

Four states with a predominantly rural population that have witnessed a huge agricultural crisis and large-scale farmer protests would hold assembly elections in 2018. After a relatively poor result in rural Gujarat recently, should the Bharatiya Janata Party be worried about its electoral prospects?

- Shuriah Niazi , Ravi Kumar & P S Rathore

IMMEDIATELY AFTER the victory in Gujarat, however narrow it might have been, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah celebrated with party members in Delhi. In one of the meetings with BJP parliamentarians, both Modi and Shah faced questions from them on an impending agrarian crisis. These parliamentarians mostly came from four states: Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. These states will go to elections this year and, barring Karnataka, have BJP governments. The message from Gujarat was disturbing for these parliamentarians for two reasons: first, the poll showed a negative sentiment against BJP on the state of rural development; and, second, unlike Modi’s home state, these four states are predominantly rural. More importantly, these states are going to build up the sentiment for the general elections in 2019, when BJP will seek to repeat its historic feat of 2014. So will rural communities go against BJP? The fear is not without reason, both in terms of rural distress and in terms of electoral ramifications.