UP BJP win: Congress site praises Amit Shah's killer instinct, Modi's larger than life image, BJP's hunger for victory

By A Representative
The Congress-owned National Herald in a post-poll analysis has admitted that the BJP's huge victory in Uttar Pradesh (UP) has been made possible "above all" because the saffron party “displayed a hunger for victory that others didn’t”, which was also “helped immensely by its foot soldiers and ‘Parcha Pramukhs’, each of whom was made responsible for mobilising 10 voters.”
Refusing to recall even once the allegation of manipulating electronic voting machines (EVMs), supported by Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala, National Herald, revived on November 14, 2016 as a digital edition, said, the BJP's strong tally of 324 was the result of “long and hard work” of Amit Shah in a “virtually wave-less and issue-less election.”
The National Herald is owned by the Associated Journals Ltd (AJL), launched in 1938 as a daily newspaper as a vanguard of the Freedom Movement by Jawarharlal Nehru. AJL is under the control of Young Indian, owned by four Congress leaders, Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Motilal Vora and Oscar Fernandes. Sonia and Rahul each control 38% stakes, while while Vora and Fernandes control rest of the 24% stakes.
Also crediting the BJP with “marketing genius”, the National Herald analysis said, “Demonetisation may have been a terrible idea and put the economy on a reverse gear, but Modi expertly sold it to the poor as something done for their benefit. The Opposition just failed to communicate to the poor.”
Noting that the claim that "the Opposition was batting for the rich with black money carried more weight with the voters”, the unsigned analysis praised Amit Shah’s “organisational ability”, saying, “The BJP president is credited with visiting almost every block headquarter in UP, reaching out to various community leaders, eating with them and smoothening their ruffled feathers.”
“Which other party president has done as much?” wondered the National Herald quoting an analyst, adding, “The organising and negotiating skills of Shah, vastly underrated by rivals played an important role in the victory. Leaders of other political parties went on Rath Yatras and held road shows, but Shah had more connect with the ground.”
Also attributing the victory to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “larger than life image”, which critics “scoffed” at wondering why was he devoting so much time to a state election, the analysis said, “the 23 rallies addressed by him clearly helped”, adding, what went against the Congress-Samajwadi (SP) Party alliance included “anti-incumbency, lawlessness, corruption”, in addition to SP's family feud.
“The BJP had little difficulty in calling the Congress-SP alliance opportunistic since the Congress had been campaigning very hard against the state government before the alliance was forged”, the National Herald opined, adding, “It clearly put off both SP and Congress workers and ‘friendly fights’ and indifferent workers would have taken a toll.”
“Demonetisation”, admitted the Congress site, may also have hit the Congress-SP "war chest”, yet the fact is, the analysis insisted, BJP “beat others hollow when it came to communication strategy and reach and ability to convey its message clearly and without any clutter.”
Then, it pointed out, “making Keshav Prasad Maurya the state BJP chief and projecting him as the key OBC face in Uttar Pradesh”, helped the party poach “major backward leaders from other parties such as Bahujan Samaj Party’s Swami Prasad Maurya”, even as “aggressively cultivated both Yadavs and non-Yadavs, besides targeting non-Jatav Dalits. ”
Finally, the analysis said, “Fielding not even a single Muslim in the state rallied insecure sections of the majority community”, which was further helped by promises of a Ram Mandir, anti-Romeo squad, a new Sanskrit University, Modi’s speeches beginning with Jai Shri Ram, his “insinuation that “more graveyards were built for Muslims than cemeteries for Hindus”, and so on.
Stating that all this helped polarise voters, the analysis underlined, this had happened against the backdrop of “100 low-intensity communal incidents”, quoting observers to say that “while most of these incidents were largely ignored by the media, they could have been manipulated to incite and consolidate one group or the other. ”

Comments

When a lake becomes real estate: The mismanagement of Hyderabad’s waterbodies

By Dr Mansee Bal Bhargava* Misunderstood, misinterpreted and misguided governance and management of urban lakes in India —illustrated here through Hyderabad —demands urgent attention from Urban Local Bodies (ULBs), the political establishment, the judiciary, the builder–developer lobby, and most importantly, the citizens of Hyderabad. Fundamental misconceptions about urban lakes have shaped policies and practices that systematically misuse, abuse and ultimately erase them—often in the name of urban development.

'Serious violation of international law': US pressure on Mexico to stop oil shipments to Cuba

By Vijay Prashad In January 2026, US President Donald Trump declared Cuba to be an “unusual and extraordinary threat” to US security—a designation that allows the United States government to use sweeping economic restrictions traditionally reserved for national security adversaries. The US blockade against Cuba began in the 1960s, right after the Cuban Revolution of 1959 but has tightened over the years. Without any mandate from the United Nations Security Council—which permits sanctions under strict conditions—the United States has operated an illegal, unilateral blockade that tries to force countries from around the world to stop doing basic commerce with Cuba. The new restrictions focus on oil. The United States government has threatened tariffs and sanctions on any country that sells or transports oil to Cuba.

When grief becomes grace: Kerala's quiet revolution in organ donation

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat* Kerala is an important model for understanding India's diversity precisely because the religious and cultural plurality it has witnessed over centuries brought together traditions and good practices from across the world. Kerala had India's first communist government, was the first state where a duly elected government was dismissed, and remains the first state to achieve near-total literacy. It is also a land where Christianity and Islam took root before they spread to Europe and other parts of the world. Kerala has deep historic rationalist and secular traditions.

Bangladesh goes to polls as press freedom concerns surface

By Nava Thakuria* As Bangladesh heads for its 13th Parliamentary election and a referendum on the July National Charter simultaneously on Thursday (12 February 2026), interim government chief Professor Muhammad Yunus has urged all participating candidates to rise above personal and party interests and prioritize the greater interests of the Muslim-majority nation, regardless of the poll outcomes.

Covishield controversy: How India ignored a warning voice during the pandemic

Dr Amitav Banerjee, MD * It is a matter of pride for us that a person of Indian origin, presently Director of National Institute of Health, USA, is poised to take over one of the most powerful roles in public health. Professor Jay Bhattacharya, an Indian origin physician and a health economist, from Stanford University, USA, will be assuming the appointment of acting head of the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), USA. Bhattacharya would be leading two apex institutions in the field of public health which not only shape American health policies but act as bellwether globally.

Beyond the conflict: Experts outline roadmap for humane street dog solutions

By A Representative In a direct response to the rising polarization surrounding India’s street dog population, a high-level coalition of parliamentarians, legal experts, and civil society leaders gathered in the capital to propose a unified national framework for humane animal management. The emergency deliberations were sparked by a recent Suo Moto judgment that has significantly deepened the divide between animal welfare advocates and those calling for the removal of community dogs, a tension that has recently escalated into reported violence against both animals and their caretakers in states like Telangana.

Why 20 years later, Rang De Basanti feels less like cinema, more like warning

By Mohd Ziyaullah Khan* This Republic Day , the Rang De Basanti , starring Aamir Khan , completed 20 years since its release. I first watched it in a single-screen theatre in my city—at a time when multiplexes were only just beginning to appear and our town was still waiting for one. It remains my favourite film, and I often revisit it on OTT platforms or television around Independence Day or Republic Day, when the air is thick with rehearsed patriotism. A few days ago, I noticed it streaming again on Jio Hotstar . Released in 2006, it is a film I have watched many times over the years. Yet, like all powerful cinema, returning to it at different stages of life offers a different experience. Twenty years ago, I found it deeply inspiring. In 2026, watching it again felt suffocating. At its core, the film follows a group of Delhi University friends who challenge the might of the central government after one of their own, a flight lieutenant, is killed in a MiG aircraft crash alleged...

The Galgotia model: How India is losing the war on knowledge

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat* Galgotia is the face of 'quality education' as envisioned by those who never considered education a tool for social change or national uplift — and yet this is precisely the model Narendra Modi pursued in Gujarat as Chief Minister. In the mid-eighties, when many of us were growing up, 'Nirma' became one of the most popular advertisements on Doordarshan. Whether the product was any good hardly seemed to matter.

A. R. Rahman's ‘Yethu’ goes viral, celebrating Tamil music on the world stage

By Syed Ali Mujtaba* Good news for Tamil music lovers—the Mozart of Madras is back in the Tamil music industry with his song “Yethu” from the film “Moonwalk.” The track has climbed international charts, once again placing A. R. Rahman on the global stage.

Search This Blog