Question

A Couple of years back a journalist wrote: ‘Either BJP President Mr Naidu will evolve a new style of leadership or BJP’s mass base is surely going to erode’.
It is a fact that Mr. Naidu did not change his leadership style. What conclusions can you draw from these facts, assuming that the journalist was right?

• A. BJP has lost its popular base.
• B. BJP has become more popular.
• C. BJP’s Hindutva line has hit new roadblocks.
• D. BJP has lost its popular support but for different reasons not related to Mr Naidu’s leadership.

Answer 1

The correct option is A BJP has lost its popular base.

The constituent propositions in the statement of the journalist may be labeled as follows:
X: BJP President Mr. Naidu will evolve a new style of leadership.
Y: BJP’s mass base is surely going to erode.
Assume that the journalist was right. It is also stated in the problem that X was false. Then, the only conclusion that can be drawn is that Y must be true because in an ‘either… or’ statement, if one constituent proposition is false, the other must be true. Hence, the only sure conclusion is (a). All other answer choices are incorrect.