Electoral Fortunes In India In 2019 Lok Sabha Elections
“Gujarat is my Atma and Bharath my Paramatma” – Modi at Gujarat meeting
S. Sivathasan
The full spell of Modi governance has cast threatening shadows on the hurriedly assembled formation of disparate elements. This alliance with little unity and less cohesion has neither a worthwhile programme nor a futuristic road map nor a specified leader. Living for the day and merely nitpicking on the incumbent government having a popularity voting at 86% of the most desired party for the coming seat of government, will not take the Congress and the Alliance even remotely visible to the BJP. Success upon success appears to be Modi’s destiny.
Modi on the Ascendant
While Modi takes the BJP confidently on the ascendant, Rahul Gandhi and the 22 cohorts have immersed themselves in murky waters. Even as the Modi wave raged on from 2018, opposing parties have been in a dither from the very beginning. The wave developing that year had its landfall in January 2019 for Modi and the BJP. To counter it, in a seeming pretense of solidarity, 22 opposing formations finalized their math. This was on 12th January 2019, when a Grand Alliance (GA) was cobbled together by caucuses doubtful of their individualistic prospects. Yet they were sure, non-survival this round, would spell extinction thereafter. Hence a fight with the back to the wall.
Grand Alliance in Vanishing Mode
Leaders were vying only to be PM. Modi wave had by then turned into a Tsunami and a surge followed. Then the deluge and on 12th March 2019, the GA, however grand, gave way and is now in shambles. Debilitation by the day is now the fate of that Alliance. Modi had proved that 1 has greater momentum than 22. He and his party appear to have breached the seat barrier of 300 as stand-alone BJP. Together with pre-poll alliances they have approached 340 as NDA, an Alliance stronger than in 2014. This assessment is not made on the ubiquitous debates and discussions or from polls on opinion and voting. Some are very sound and throw much light; many are plainly tendentious. Media bias calls for no proof and the reason therefor is not hard to seek. As of now social media too stands tainted and it is the opposition that is paying the price by losing credibility.
Modi and His Pool of Cranial Intelligence
Blessed with high intelligence, having the sense for the possible and the practicable, unafraid of those of even higher endowment, Modi displayed his knack for composing groups of all talents. Never ill at ease with any of them, he has only exuded confidence among his compeers. Be it as Chief Minister, be it in parliament or in cabinet, he has been primus inter pares. The same record holds in the management of the party. All these traits are now public knowledge and surveys show him as India’s best Prime Minister ever.
The country knows that for governance, he has opted for men of dynamism who have demonstrated a capacity for achievement. Such a selection composes the cabinet. The same story holds in choices from the bureaucracy and technocracy. Five years of success bespeak the unremitting commitment which has yielded striking results. All these and very many more are an unrelenting reproach on the opposition parties both in state and at centre. Hence the dread of Modi and the dislike flowing therefrom. Vastly more threatening is the steady flow of facts buttressed by statistics ably presented by Modi and his top-notch Ministers.
Modi addressing election crowds in Thiruppur Tamil Nadu
What Do They Convey?
The level of awareness of the widest spectrum of the Indian polity has changed. Mindset is now to move in tandem with the change, speed and transformational mode of the Modi administration. Irreversibility of progress made so far is now a fact of life. Very convincing speeches to multi-lakh audiences, by the top leadership of the BJP, forceful discourses in political debates and instructive writings are continuing to change the world’s largest electorate into a cauldron of change. Social media widely available in India are vehicles to carry viewpoints daily to hundreds of millions. This is happening on a scale, never before seen. The impact of this deluge on misinformation of a weak opposition is well known. May it be understood that the print media has lost its power to sway. How passion moves the masses was best known to Nehru and he has declared its efficacy. Now Modi discerns it as well and bases his forecast of 300 plus seats for NDA – as at early April – on that potent factor.
