BJP's victory - Press Statement by Shri Lal Krishna Advani

After the BJP’s decisive victories in the Vidhan Sabha elections in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh towards the end of 2007, I had stated that 2008 would turn out to be a ‘Year of Change’ in national politics. My affirmation has been vindicated by the triumphant performance of the BJP in the Vidhan Sabha elections in Karnataka.

I sincerely thank the people of Karnataka for giving a mandate to my party. I also heartily congratulate the state unit of the BJP and Shri B.S. Yedyurappa, under whose leadership the party contested the elections, for this victory. This is a verdict against the Congress party’s politics of opportunism and the JD(S)’s politics of betrayal.

However, the Congress party would be indulging in self-delusion if it thought that the people of Karnataka were influenced only by local factors. The UPA government’s utter failure to control the prices of essential commodities, its soft and compromising policy on terrorism, and its insensitivity towards the plight of kisans have angered common people all over the country. This is evident from the Congress party’s defeat in almost all the Vidhan Sabha elections held since May 2004.

I have no doubt that my party’s triumph in Karnataka will prove to a turning point comparable to the quantum increase in parliamentary strength that the BJP achieved in 1989. It will be recalled that the BJP won 86 seats in the 1989 Lok Sabha elections compared to only two seats in 1984. Thereafter, the BJP’s victory march became unstoppable and led to the formation of the BJP-led NDA government in 1998. It also ended the Congress’ one-party domination at the Centre and transformed India’s polity into a bi-polar system.

Nearly 20 years later, another turning point has arrived in the challenge put up by the BJP to the hegemony of the Congress. Whereas earlier our party’s growth was due to its ability to form governments in northern and western states, and also, later, in Orissa and Bihar in the east, now for the first time we are in a position to form government in a southern state. This geographical expansion of the BJP, and the simultaneous shrinkage of the Congress party almost all over the country, shows the shape of things to come in the run-up to the next parliamentary elections.