While Priyanka Gandhi’s impressive win in Wayanad has given the Congress a reason to smile but an individual triumph cannot negate the drubbing the party has got in all-important Maharashtra poll by KUMKUM CHADHA
The Congress Party has one reason to smile and many to cry.
Priyanka Gandhi has won her first election but the Congress lost Maharashtra; it did badly in the by-polls in Rajasthan; it played second fiddle to Hemant Soren’s Jharkhand Mukti Morcha in the state; Congress lost its bastion in the Vav assembly seat in the Gujarat bypoll; in Kerala it lost the Chelakkara seat to the ruling Left Democratic Front.
The assembly by-polls were held in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and West Bengal among others.
The BJP has enough reason to smile, given that the Party and its allies made major gains in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Rajasthan.
But it is the Maharashtra story, which, for the BJP, would be scripted in gold.
Therefore, it was not without reason that when Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the Party headquarters to address Party workers this time around, he did it with renewed vigour.
Gone were the plastered smiles following the Lok Sabha elections aftermath wherein even while losing, he had to boast of a “victory” and “thank” the people for giving him the third term as Prime Minister.
Yet, like all others, even Modi knew that his is a government resting on the crutches of allies. On its own, the BJP failed to secure a majority: a rude shock from its ab ki baar 400 paar spiel.
But the 2024 Lok Sabha elections is History.
What followed is the BJP’s resurrection soon after its dismal performance in the general elections, beginning with Haryana, wherein it deftly pulled off the impossible under the leadership of the newly inducted Chief Minister, Nayab Singh Saini.
In the state of Jammu and Kashmir, it continued to maintain its hold in the Jammu region, emerging as the single largest Party there.
In his customary address that evening in October, Prime Minister Narendra Modi hammered the point that the BJP has emerged as the single-largest party in terms of vote share.
One month down the line, Modi is busy celebrating what has been termed as NDA’s “monster win” in Maharashtra. Modi called it the “biggest victory” for any party or pre-poll alliance in Maharashtra in the last 50 years.
So, what does the Maharashtra story tell us?
There are two messages emanating: one how to fight an election and the second: how to lose one.
The protagonist in the first, is the BJP: a Party which tells the world how to bounce back and also learn rather than grieve in defeat.
To put it mildly, the Lok Sabha elections were a setback for the BJP and more so for Prime Minister Modi: his brand seemed to have lost its sheen. At least at that point in time.
At one level, his situation can be compared to the late Mrs Indira Gandhi’s defeat in the post Emergency era: a shock and a body blow but one that the people of India had then inflicted. Mrs Gandhi had lost from the family bastion of Rae Bareli in 1977.
In contrast, Modi retained Varanasi this year but with a less than two lakh margin against his four lakh plus in 2019. That he was crestfallen was clearly visible: the Modi-hubris missing.
A man of action, he lost no time in reading the writing on the wall.
Determined to undo the damage, the BJP was pressed into action: it started with Haryana and has come full circle in Maharashtra. It polished brand Modi and simultaneously addressed local concerns of the electorate. More importantly, it worked cohesively with its allies.
But this is the visible part. What is known but not said publicly is the RSS’s role.
It is no secret that the BJP draws its organizational strength from the RSS cadres: something that was missing in the Lok Sabha elections. The buzz then was that the RSS had taken a kind of a backseat and did not give the BJP the organizational support that was needed to get a comfortable majority. Many attributed this to RSS’s gameplan to cut Modi to size and dispel the impression that Brand Modi is bigger than the organization.
Therefore, the cadres did work for a BJP-win, but when it came to the absolute majority numbers, the enthusiasm was missing.
Post Lok Sabha, the story took a turn. Whether Modi has mended fences or RSS called it a truce is not known but in the subsequent elections that followed the general elections, the cadres went all out: working not only for a win but also for the numbers, Maharashtra being a stellar example.
On the ground, the RSS mobilized small teams of swayamsevaks across the state. Their brief was to engage with local communities, organize group discussions focusing on Hindutva, governance, and public welfare.
The tool: subtlety rather than pushing the BJP on the face. This strategy, perhaps, helped shape public opinion in the saffron Party’s favor.
Another thing that the Party and cadres were careful about was the Modi-overkill, so to speak. This is not to suggest that Brand Modi was not used: it was but alongside flagging his persona, voters’ concerns and local issues were deftly weaved in and addressed. Consequently, as against Modi centric campaigns in the past, this time around it was one that balanced the Modi government’s achievements with issues that the electorate wanted addressed.
At this stage, one may ask: why the formula that worked particularly for Maharashtra, did not for Jharkhand?
A legitimate question but one which does not have a straight answer. However, few would disagree that sympathy for the then Chief Minister Hemant Soren surpassed other issues.
Soren was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in January this year. Politically, the arrest united the tribals who pointed a finger at the BJP for destabilizing the state government headed by a tribal.
The slogan “jail ka badla vote se” resonated even as Soren played the victim card after his release.
But back to the BJP and the Congress. Few would disagree that the Congress lost the plot.
In Haryana it oversold the Hoodas: former Chief Minister Bhupinder and his son Deepender. The duo was gung-ho about their return; factionalism was at its peak and the Congress leadership committed the fatal mistake of giving Hooda a free hand. Dalit leader Kumar Selja was among those who was sidelined.
Fast forward to Maharashtra where the Congress won only 16 seats: its worst ever performance in the history of the state.
For starters the Party ran an unimaginative campaign; also it lost precious time in discussing the seat sharing formula when it should have hit the ground running. Worse still, Rahul Gandhi’s constant attack on industrialist Gautam Adani did not cut ice. Neither did his “save the Constitution” plea: that had run its course in the general election. To quote critics, it was a case of a “stuck record player”.
Unlike the BJP, the Congress did not focus on issues specific to the state: the local bread and butter concerns, so to speak.
So what does this say about the grand old Party that had given hope to its loyalists by performing unexpectedly well in the general elections?
As of now, it seems that the Party has lost its way. Priyanka Gandhi’s impressive win in Wayanad has given a reason to smile but an individual win cannot compensate for the drubbing the Congress has got in the state elections.
