BOOM! So mera gaon-mera desh it is. From remote rural pockets of Uttar Pradesh to far outposts like Manipur, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has gone deeper and farther than ever before. It is now - barring the chimeric flicker of the Janata appartition post-Emergency - only the second major political ambition Independent India has seen established. The first - the Congress - continues to sink, despite snatching a gulp of fresh air in Punjab; the BJP is fast replacing its emboss of yore.

The accompanying illustrations and text box would tell you just how emphatically. The BJP ruled seven states and 24-odd per cent of India's population when Narendra Modi became Prime Minister in 2014. Over the past three years, it has come to secure hold over 13 states and nearly 56 per cent of India's people. Modi's vociferously enunciated 2014 project - Congress-mukt Bharat aka BJP-yukt Bharat - is a work in energetic progress. So much so, that BJP foghorns seem not even bothered sparing any breath over the Congress any more; they are taken by their own advance enough. "This is the time to acknowledge and finally accept that Narendra Modi is unquestionably the most popular leader ever to lead this country," BJP president Amit Shah proclaimed at a triumphal interaction as the trends firmed up, "The country has strongly endorsed the direction in which the Prime Minister has decided to lead it, and I can tell you that nobody can stop us from proceeding." To a faintly offered question on the future of the Congress, he appeared happily dismissive, even mocking, of tone. "What of the Congress? They are not my responsibility, perhaps if they become mine it will do them some good."

Hover on the maps and data a moment, they will give you a sense of the stunning leap the BJP has taken; the numbers would suggest high horizontals, the spreading saffron, its many lateral trajectories. Barring the South - and elections in Karnataka await - it has broken frontiers in every direction. From Assam and Arunachal (and possibly Manipur, where its inroads are remarkable) in the East, to Jammu and Kashmir up North, to almost all of the central-west heartland.

The BJP has gained a spread across India that the Congress once possessed. And should you examine the way its poll-machine is tuned, the effort hasn't gone full stretch yet. As a BJP strategist told The Telegraph in the flush of the latest surge, "People don't get it when they see the Prime Minister continuing in what they call campaign mode. They are right, but they fail to grasp its meaning. The Narendra Modi mission is a mission to institute the BJP and the idea of the BJP in place of the Congress and the idea of the Congress. It is not about elections and governments alone, although political power is a key instrument; it is about converting political power to serve an idea very different from what the Congress represented. That mission has received strong approval today, but that mission isn't quite done. Don't be surprised to see the Prime Minister persist in campaign mode."

Two years ago, a no-less determined or belligerent effort by the Modi-Shah team to breach the heartland was blunted in Bihar. The battle for Bihar was in many ways similar to the UP campaign and in many ways critically different. (See Yesterday Once More, The Telegraph February 12, 2017; https://www.telegraphindia.com/1170212/jsp/7days/story_135297.jsp.) One of them, decidedly was that the index of unity against the BJP in UP was much lower than in Bihar. Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad, the two main provincial players, effected an SOS entente, dissolving years of bitter rivalry; in UP, Mayawati of the BSP, stayed away and made the contest three-sided.

But that could not have been the only reason for the BJP's unprecedented thunderslide, a hundred more seats than "Ram" delivered the party following the divisive Ayodhya push in 1991. What was it then? The BJP is not lost for answers, although Amit Shah did say the results need detailed analysing. Their instant-fix answer is no surprise: Narendra Modi. He took a nosedive in Delhi and Bihar, but he's come flying out of UP. Whatever the fine print of reasons for the BJP's victory, the super-script was being pronounced out loud across party rostrums today: Modi ji ki jeet.

It's nothing to quarrel with. To be on the ground in Uttar Pradesh was to be hit by Modi's in-your-face campaign at each step. The BJP didn't project a chief minister. And to the votary that didn't seem to matter one bit. To be on the ground was also to be stunned by how much focus lay pinned on a man not even in the contest for chief ministership of UP. People were voting Modi, BJP candidates were his proxies, this, as it turned out, was a lamp-post election. But it was a high-risk game, all the same, made to appear even riskier by the negative returns from previous outings in Delhi and Bihar. But Modi played it - harder and more ferociously as the campaign proceeded.

But once it is in repose, once it has recovered from the celebrations and the heady hangover of UP, what the BJP might want to celebrate more than its runaway victories is the return of Brand Narendra Modi, new, improved, stronger, bolder. It's what will outlast this election's accomplishments and provide ammunition for more. For, make no mistake, this victory has been scored post-demonetisation, which has acquired political meaning beyond its disputed economic wisdom. He tore traditional voting patterns across the Hindi heartland in 2014, he has come back to disrupt them once again. "This mandate is the making of a man who is seen by the whole nation as one who can take bold decisions, decisions that no other leader can take," said Smriti Irani, Union minister for textiles, "This is a resounding endorsement for a man seen by the masses as able to take risks in order to serve them, don't forget the meaning of this. This is about Narendra Modi much more than it is about anything else. And it will continue to be about him, mark my words."

What's to follow? Tune in to Delhi rather than to Lucknow for more. Probably the most substantive report of today's rites will resound out of Parliament. The Modi government, in the latter half of its term, is set to gain leverage in the Rajya Sabha and, consequently, more decision-making muscle. And this Prime Minister is not afraid of hurling surprises, unpleasant or otherwise. Who knows what he might deliver next as dare for 2019?

Meantime, enjoy your Holi; a new burst of colour has just been rained upon gaon and desh alike.