India, Feb. 9 -- That is the gift Delhi's outcome has given to the Bharatiya Janata Party and the BJP-led central government.

For the next seven months, till campaign intensifies in the final lap of the Bihar elections, the BJP does not have to worry about winning elections. It does not have to worry about its political reputation and strength that was depleted after the Lok Sabha polls, for it has now shown not once, not twice, but thrice - in Haryana, Maharashtra, and now Delhi - that the 2024 verdict was not necessarily the beginning of the end.

It does not have to worry about a united opposition mounting a concerted attack, for these three electoral setbacks will only intensify the contradictions within the Indian National Developme...