ISSUE DATE: May 17, 2021
UPDATED: May 7, 2021 20:11 IST
PM Modi with Amit Shah and J.P. Nadda (Naveen Sharma/Getty Images)
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is reeling from the shock of the West Bengal assembly poll results, where despite its vaulting ambitions, the party has managed a far more modest 77 legislators to its name in a 294-member house. The BJP had turned the state election into a prestige issue, deploying its poll management specialists from across the country, and using Amit Shah’s ‘shock and awe’ tactics to shake up things. The party, and Shah especially, had trumpeted its predictions of winning more than 200 seats. Now it’s left to review the failure to maintain the 40.7 per cent vote share it had in the 2019 Lok Sabha poll.