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Kritika Mathur and
Sharif Qamar with
their daughter Ayritika
Mathur and Sharif
it is likely that a degree of overestimation in his own it worked against him and he had to apologize in the
abilities took place. Rahul started believing that Modi’s top court.
ouster is inevitable and the Prime Minister is not in- Again the late entry of Priyanka Gandhi as party
vincible, as it was believed to be earlier. We were sud- General Secretary as an ace card did not work in fa-
denly led to believe by media that Modi, at last, has a vour of the party. Congress also made two funda-
challenger in Rahul Gandhi. mental errors in campaign strategy. One, it played
One can safely draw a conclusion that this overesti- to Modi’s strength and its negative campaign only
mation had caused more harm to Congress than any worked in favour of the saffron party. Two, it bet its
campaign by BJP ever could. To begin, one thing that bottom rupee on a negative campaign, trying to stoke
you do not do while targeting your opponent is play- anger against Modi.
ing to the opponent’s strength. In his five-year tenure Congress had nothing to offer by way of a solution
as the Prime minister, Modi displayed a few areas of or vision except for a minimum income guarantee
vulnerability. Though inflation was kept under tight that came too late and was never carried home. In
control resulting in relief for consumers, it conversely fact, the NAYAY message of guaranteed income Nega-
meant dent in income in the farm sector. The rural tive the campaign may only work in a situation where
distress is real and resulted in massive discontent there is a massive discontent against the incumbent.
among farmers. So is the issue of unemployment. But In this case, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popu-
the opposition could not exploit these issues success- larity never wavered and instead reached greater
fully to tilt the election results in their favour. heights, than it did in 2014. Again post Balakot air-
The issue of Rafael also backfired. And when the strikes, Modi’s popularity had reached its acme. Un-
Congress President, Rahul Gandhi misinterpreted the der the circumstances, how prudent was it for Con-
Supreme Court case in Supreme Court and quoted the gress president to target Modi’s personal integrity?
Apex Court to make the point of “Chowkidar chor hai”, Perhaps advisors of Rahul Gandhi or the coterie
tehelka / 15 June 2019 14 www.tehelka.com