Has the BJP lost its mojo in the core Hindi heartland?
Failure to help distressed farmers and refusal to acknowledge the jobless crisis have fanned voter discontent.
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THE wheels are coming off the "Modi juggernaut" that was expected to propel the Indian prime minister and his ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) back to power, according to latest statistical analyses and political forecasts of the general election whose results are to be announced on May 23.
The BJP is expected to lose massively in the northern Hindi heartland because of the combined effects of a canny alliance of opposition parties against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as well as widespread voter discontent over the government's failure to address the crisis of farmers' debt in these constituencies, the negative dual shocks of demonetisation and the Goods and Services Tax, and rising youth unemployment.
A study by Deepankar Basu, associate professor at the Department of Economics, University of Massachusetts Amherst, and Debarshi Das, associate professor in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati, argues that the BJP's fortunes in the ongoing parliamentary election rest largely on its performance in the Hindi heartland.
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