India
oi-Smita Mishra
Talk to any BJP Karyakarta for a minute and the sheer disappointment of not conquering the Bengal front is too palpable. The reason is not just that the party top leadership had made it such a high stakes battle. It’s because the BJP-Sangh cadre had looked at it as a civilisational war and not a mere assembly poll. Vanquishing Mamata Bannerjee in Nandigram is a small consolation considering the Trinamool Congress romped back by with brute majority. By Sunday afternoon, web columnists and television panelists had already penned down why and how this was going to impact the Narendra Modi govt in the centre and change the over-all contours of national politics.
FULL THROTTLE WIN OR LOSE
The BJP fought West Bengal Assembly elections just like it fights every election. Full throttle. With all its electoral might and machinery. If anybody thinks Bengal was an exception, they need to go back…