Markets Set To Gain After PM Modi's Landslide Victory In Uttar Pradesh
Greeting jubilant party workers and supporters, Modi flanked by prominent party leaders walked to the BJP headquarters in Lutyens' Delhi, a day after the party's historic electoral win in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday expressed happiness to see a new record of highest number of women MLAs elected to the new Uttar Pradesh Assembly.
"I don't want to feel that I could have pushed myself a little more", Modi was quoted as saying by a close aide who attended the meeting.
Having faced a major anti-BJP campaign by Patels (or Patidars) - onetime a cardinal force behind BJP's support base in the western state - the party chose to replace its Chief Minister Anandiben Patel in August past year.
Even so, Modi's political problems won't vanish overnight.
"We sincerely hope that Amit Shah and Narendra Modi will not enter into such a misadventure to decimate the will of the people for people have spoken clearly", he added.
"This is the beginning of a new chapter in the history of India", Jitendra Singh, a minister of state in Modi's office, told the television station Times Now.
"This is a stupendous achievement", said Ashok Malik, a fellow with the Observer Research Foundation, based in New Delhi.
The coalition put together by BJP President Amit Shah, who crafted and conducted the election strategy in UP, was instrumental for the party's return to power after 15 years in the state of over 200 million people.
"He has to do a very delicate tightrope walk between being reformist and populist", said Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, a journalist and biographer of Modi.
The tsunami effect of the state election victory, which caught many observers unaware, has forced the BJP's opponents to acknowledge that Modi's reelection chances in the 2019 Indian general elections look brighter than ever before. Following on from budget reform and a crackdown on the black economy, the GST would streamline India's myriad indirect taxes, which vary considerably across state lines and have been a hindrance to foreign investors.
The Congress Legislature Party will also meet today.
On the campaign trail, too, Modi played up religious divisions by asking why the state government ensured there were no power cuts in the Muslim holy month of Ramadan but not during the Hindu festival of Diwali. For the past several years, however, the BJP has been working to broaden its appeal and draw voters from the lower castes, or "Other Backward Classes", to its side.