Since coming to power at the Centre two years ago the Bharatiya Janata Party has been calling for a Congress-mukt Bharat, confident that its electoral fortunes were on the upswing. As state after state saw the Congress's foot print shrinking, it seemed as if the BJP's grand plan was coming true.
"Congress-mukt Bharat," BJP president Amit Shah has often reiterated, is a "misunderstood phrase". According to him, "It is an expression against the avyavastha (disorder) under the Congress rule of decades where, for selfish interests of the party, Congressmen ignored national interests. We want India to get rid (mukt) of the system nurtured under Congress rule.”
Echoing the sentiment, Prime Minister Narendra Modi describes it as an effort to get rid of dynastic politics, nepotism, corruption, communalism and divisions in society, or poverty -- all of which, according to him, are synonymous with a Congress dispensation.
So how close is India to becoming Congress-mukt? Does the decline of the Congress automatically mean the BJP is strengthened?
The map below shows exactly where the various parties stand.
As you can see, besides Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Mizoram, Meghalaya and Puducherry, the remaining states are now governed by the BJP or its allies, or strong regional parties (like the TMC in West Bengal, SP in Uttar Pradesh). The Congress's footprint, it is clear, is shrinking.
