Befuddled, Jingoistic Party

In late February of this year, things were looking very good for the Bharatiya Janata Party. State assembly elections had just finished in Punjab, Uttarkhand and Manipur, with the BJP defeating the Congress party in all but the last. BJP president Rajnath Singh was feeding and being fed celebratory sweets left and right (see pic). In the media, against the backdrop of inflation and the rising price of basic foodstuffs, these results were interpreted as a general turning away from the Congress. The BJP's subsequent decisive victory in the Delhi municipal elections in early April seemed to confirm its rise; the party's dismal performance in 2006's state assembly elections was all but forgotten. Admittedly, in Assam, Kerala, Pondicherry, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal the BJP won a meagre 10 out of 542 seats contested – all 10 of which came in Assam. But perhaps the BJP leadership saw victory in the defeat of the Congress, which only won in Assam and Pondicherry.

As such, the results in Punjab, Uttarkhand and Delhi in early 2007 were trumpeted as a show of the BJP's new power, and there were high hopes for the party in the forthcoming Uttar Pradesh assembly election. Amidst the uncertainties and complexities of this election, it seemed that the BJP could perform well. Could it even become the state's biggest party? Mulayam Singh Yadav's Samajwadi Party seemed certain to fall, and it was an open question as to who could take its place.