New Delhi, Mar 11: In a resounding endorsement of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s policies and his party’s “double-engine” electoral plank amid criticism of the handling of the pandemic and job losses, especially in main battleground UP where Yogi Adityanath was seeking a second term, four of five states that went to polls returned the BJP to power Thursday. The AAP swept Punjab, packing off stalwarts and uprooting rival parties to change the political landscape.

 

 

 

Elated over the BJP’s 4/5 score, Modi, addressing party workers in New Delhi, said he hoped “political pundits, who did not think much of the party’s 2019 (Lok Sabha) win saying it had already been decided by the 2017 UP results, will now have the courage to say that the 2022 (UP) results have decided the 2024 (Lok Sabha) results.”

 

 

 

With the BJP set to form governments again in UP, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur, Modi said: “A hill state adjacent to the border, a coastal state, a state with special blessings of Mother Ganga and a state on the northeastern border, the BJP has received blessings from all four directions.” “The challenges of these states are different, the path of their development journey is different, but what is common, weaving them in the same thread, is the trust in BJP, in the BJP’s policies, intentions and decisions,” he said.

 

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If the verdict was a stamp of approval for the BJP in elections considered a test for the Lok Sabha polls still two years away, it had the Congress flailing again, the party stock sliding further despite a high-octane campaign by Gandhi siblings Priyanka and Rahul. Voted out of Punjab, it was leading only on two seats in UP where its vote share had dropped to a little over 2 per cent. For the BJP, the taste of victory was sweeter in UP where Yogi Adityanath broke the comeback jinx of almost four decades. Not only did he stave off the challenge from the Akhilesh Yadav-led SP, but eclipsed all others in the fray, reducing the Congress, BSP and Others to single digits.

 

 

 

In Lucknow, Adityanath said people have “buried the politics of caste and religion” by ensuring the victory of BJP and its allies under Modi’s leadership. “The mammoth victory of the party proves that the politics of development and good governance has been blessed by the people of UP. We will take forward our pledge of Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas.”