BJP poised to win the battle of batteles

Prime Minister Narendra Modi led BJP has won the assembly election in three out of five states, where polling took place last month. In the elections, considered by political analysts as the semi final before the next year's Lok Sabha polls,the BJP has clearly won, dealing a massive blow to its main challenger the Congress.
It is singificant that the BJP retained power in Madhya Pradesh wrested power from Congress in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh.With this,the ruling dispensation is now holding the reins of power in all Hindi speaking states, with the exception of Himichal Pradesh.On the other side,the Congress is left with only Himanchal Pradesh among the politically important Hindi speaking states.The Congress was hoping to retain power in Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan and wrest power from BJP in Madhya Pradesh but its hopes were dashed by the voters. The Congress was itself to blame for the debacle. Despite being a constituent of the 28 party INDIA Conglomerate, it refuses to have any truck with the Samajwadi Party which wanted to have a poll understanding with it in Madhya Pradesh. And the way it rebuffed the Akhilesh Yadav led Samajwadi Paarty was wrong, to say the least.
The Samajwadi Party failed to win any seat but may have led to the Congress losing some seats to the BJP in close contest. And what is more, it perhaps created the impression among the voters that the Congress was not a winning proposition. The only consolation to the Congress in tis round of election is the victory in Telangana, where it defeated the K. Chandrashekhar Rao led BRS.
In the fifth state Mizoram, where the elections took place, neither the BJP nor the Congress could make much headway, winning two or one seats respectiveley. A new party, ZPM wrested power from the ruling MNF in Mizoram.Not much is known yet of the stand it will take on relations with the national political parties.
With the BJP riding high because of its stellar performance in the elections in five states, prime minister Narendra Modi is already talking of another stinct in Power after the national elections to be held in six months time.As of now, the BJP led by prime minister Narendra Modiappears to be in front runner inthe Lok Sabha elections to be held by May next year. INDIA alliance with its internal divisions does not appear to have the coherence required for mounting a serious challenge to the Narendra Modi led BJP.
But things can change if the Opposition combine resolve its internal contradictions and is successful in changing the narrative that it is in no position a cridible challenge to the BJP. The combine was scheduled to meet on December 6 to discuss its future strategy and also perhaps seat sharing in the upcoming parliamentary elections but the meetng was also postponed for some or the other reason.
For the talks to make progress, the Congtress and other opposition parties will have to scale back their ambitions, to tranform themselves into a winning coalition. They have to stop talking about, who will be the prime minister, and instead hold talks on a comman agenda of governance. 

(B I Saini is a Political Analyst with decades of journalistic experience. Retired as DG, News, AIR)