File Picture
The trends emerging till 3 in afternoon, is certainly great news for the Narendra Modi led Bharatiya Janata (BJP). With well over 300 seats, the NDA is on the way to another thumping majority, for the second successive time since 2014. It also conveys the message that in electoral politics, the Narendra Modi-Amit Shah duo is absolutely unmatchable.
On the other hand, much to everyone’s surprise Rahul Gandhi’s Congress, which many believed, after the party’s dramatic performance in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, would challenge the saffron party, looks unlikely.
However these are early days as counting is expected to go on for long hours. No figure is final before the last vote is counted.
But, one thing is for sure: while the BJP has once again campaigned hard, played all its cards, with planning and precision the Congress and the Mahagathbandhan simply missed the bus. The Congress had a big chance to do much better than its 2014 show, but it missed the chance somehow.
In the last four years, the Modi led government has taken a series of decisions which has been believed as pro poor and in the larger and long term interest of the country.
Some bold steps, like demonetization and GST, despite the adverse effects of some people, have been praised by the people as a whole, for they think it’s in the interest of the country. The surgical strikes and then the recent Balakot air strikes following Pulwama attack was appreciated by one and all.
However, the Congress, seemed to have failed to realize the mood of the people, as it raked up the same issues time and again and criticized not only the government, but cast aspersions on the military strikes.
Starting from Rahul Gandhi, his Mahagathbandhan allies to senior Congress leaders everyone raised questions at the defence forces. That was a serious blunder, for when the country is celebrating, asking unwanted questions, doesn’t help. It certainly hasn’t as the trends shows.
Secondly, when Modi says about his drive against the corrupt and corruption, the general public seems to believe him. They have reasons to trust him for, at least, unlike the UPA era, not a single case of corruption has come to the light in Modi’s last five years government.
Of course, Rahul Gandhi has been shouting against the Rafale deal, however, so far he hasn’t placed any proof of it. It should be mentioned that many people disapproved Rahul’s charge as they say, Rafale deal is in the interest of India’s security and shouldn’t questioned.
However, while Rahul questioned Modi on Rafale deal, he chose to team up with RJD (Bihar), SP (in UP), DMK (Tamil Nadu), parties against which huge corruption cases have been going on.
Rahul had the chance to get his party closer to the people and win more support. At many places he raised the pertinent farmers issue, but didn’t follow it up seriously.
In Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh where his young leaders did the wonders, the Congress chief, decided to nominate the family loyalists (in MP and Rajasthan) as chief ministers. The results from these states, as the trend suggests, are going to hurt the Congress. The party’s decisions could be a reason for such a poor return from its own rule states.
In Delhi and UP, till the last moment before nominations were filed, it couldn’t be clear if the Congress was going to ally with others. If Priyanka had to jump into politics, she could have done, at least a couple of months before, she finally did. Thus, the strategies of the Congress were very confusing.
In Odisha the Congress actions were baffling. Many leaders thought to jump to either the BJP or Naveen Patnaik’s BJP due to the Congress’ apathy. Ironically, some leaders returned their tickets, while in one place, till the nomination deadline was over, the party couldn’t allot its ticket to its candidates.
In the middle of some ambitious leaders of the Mahagathbandhan, a national party like Congress played the role of the second fiddle, which annoyed even its long time sympathizers.
It was viewed, that the Mahagathbandhan, if voted to power wouldn’t survive long. Majority of the parties in this grand alliance, had been long time sworn enemies, but joined hands for political survival. Even till the voting was over, different leaders of the alliance spoke in separate tones.
That’s perhaps the reason why the idea of grand alliance couldn’t be accepted by the voters. Even poll predictions and opinion polls gave advantage to the grand alliance, so far the trends are telling a completely opposite story.
It’s still early days as the final rounds of counting are still hours away. Therefore, it’s best to wait and watch for the actual verdict.
