HVK Archives: BJP's bold gamble paying off
BJP's bold gamble paying off - India Today
Posted By ashok (ashokvc@giasbm01.vsnl.net.in)
30 June 1996.
Title: BJP's Bold Gamble Paying Off
Publication: India Today
Date: June 30, 1996.
Considering the unclear and fragmented verdict from the
electorate, there was a lot of debate over whether Presi-
dent S D Sharma should have invited the BJP first to form
the government. While the Opposition had cried foul, the
electorate seems to be completely in support of the
President's decision, with 74% of them approving his ac-
tion.
The BJP high command's decision is supported by a majori-
ty of the electorate, with about 67% saying that the BJP
was right in forming the government when offered the
chance. However, a number of people (20%) felt that it
may have been better for the BJP to have not taken up the
offer as it did not have the required number of MPs to
form the government on its won and was not likely to get
support from other quarters.
The voters went further, saying that other parties should
have actually backed the BJP and allowed it to govern the
country at this stage. As many as 66% of the electorate
felt this way. The measure of goodwill for the party on
this account is fairly uniform, with the electorate in
both rural and urban India sharing these views.
Essentially the BJP was alleged to be a communal party
and this was the reason given by other parties for not
supporting it. However, the electorate does not seem to
believe this theory - only 33% agreed with the statement
that the BJP was a communal party, whereas 56% felt that
it was not.
When the party went in to form the government. some of
its leaders had said that they were in a win-win situa-
tion. If they continued in government, they would have
achieved their goal, and if they failed they would get
the sympathy of the voters. Obviously, these calcula-
tions were quite accurate. As many as 58% of the re-
spondents to this poll felt that the BJP emerged stronger
from the whole episode.
What characterised the results of these questions was
that regardless of whether the voter was male or female,
urban or rural, the pattern of support for the BJP's gam-
ble remained almost identical.
Summary of the results:
YES NO
Was the President right in
inviting the BJP to form 74% 13%
the government?
Should the BJP have formed the
government? 67% 20%
Is the BJP a communal party? 33% 56%
Has the BJP emerged stronger
after stepping down from 58% 27%
power?
NOTE:
The above is on a basis of an opinion poll, conducted
from June 6 to June 9, in 16 major states (AP, Assam, Bi-
har, Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Kerala, MP,
Maharashtra, Orissa, Punjab, Rajasthan, TN, UP and W Ben-
gal. It covered 51 representative parliamentary constit-
uencies and interviewed 12,777 registered voters.
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