Results of the recently concluded elections are out. As always, the mixed nature of results has left enough space for almost all political parties, their leaders and political pundits to claim ‘victory’ and self-righteousness.
Historic Victory in Gujarat
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came out with a historic and landslide majority in Gujarat to continue its non-stop winning spree since 1995. The way the Gujarat model of performance has resulted in the saffron party’s outstanding victory in the hustings now needs to be replicated at the national level. Voters of Gujarat cast their precious vote only for the fact that the cadre-based BJP has completely focused on performance for the betterment of the people.
“The reason why the BJP is loved so much across the nation is because the people of this nation know that BJP has the conviction and courage to take bold and tough decisions. This is also reflected in the ever-growing support and trust that BJP is gaining with time” — Narendra Modi, Prime Minister
But it lost its 15-year-long dominance over the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) to Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the Capital and also lost its Government in Himachal Pradesh to Congress.
The AAP put up an impressive show in Delhi by expanding its rule over the State Assembly further to the biggest and most prestigious civic body of the country. But all bragging of its voluble leader Arvind Kejriwal, who had the audacity of publicly issuing his ‘likh-kar-guarantee’ (written guarantee) about winning “full majority” in Gujarat and Himachal Assemblies, just ended into a serious embarrassment. Voters in both States forced the poor fellow to eat crow as his party failed even to get ‘also-ran’ rank by winning just 5 seats in the Gujarat Assembly of 182. Even Isudan Gadhvi, the ‘Chief Minister’ candidate of AAP in Gujarat, could not win his own seat. And in Himachal it turned out even worse as the AAP failed even to win a single seat in the House of 68.
Congress Will Lose Its National Party Status
After a long history of poor performances at the polling booths across the country, Congress was finally able to win an impressive majority of 40 seats in the Himachal Assembly of 68 seats. In contrast, BJP could win only 25 seats as against its previous majority tally of 44. But the extremely poor performance of Congress in the Gujarat and Himachal Assemblies and also in the MCD polls raised doubts if it is going to retain its status as a ‘National Party’ in near future. In Gujarat it could win only 17 seats as against its own previous tally of 78. In Delhi’s MCD too it was forced to eat the humble pie with just 9 seats in a house of 250 as against 134 of AAP and 104 of BJP. BJP’s performance in Gujarat (156) shows a historic surge of 57 seats over its previous tally whereas Congress (17) lost 61 seats from its score of 78 in the last Assembly.
No Party Can Cast Aspersions On ECI
This mixed bag of performance in the latest elections by various parties has been a blessing in disguise. One important observation was that all those leaders, who had got used to blaming the voting-machines and the Election Commission for their own failure at the polling booth, were conspicuous by their total silence this time after the verdict was announced. After all, it’s ridiculous to claim that the machines and the EC were fair in constituencies where they won and were ‘unfair’ where they were losers. The EC must be feeling relieved this time due to this pleasant change. These election results have also once again proved that the roots of democracy are going deeper and the maturity graph of the ordinary voter is going North. Also, near total absence of violence during the election campaign and troublemakers at the polling booths across the States reflect the efficacy of the system and efficiency of the Election Commission of India (ECI). One wonders if the ECI is rewarded with a Nobel Peace Prize for its unique performance at conducting the world’s biggest democratic exercise with remarkable perfection and efficiency.
“It’s our record win in Gujarat under PM’s leadership… We got 52.5 per cent vote share. Congress’s voting percentage dropped to 27.3. A new party came to insult Gujarat and the leader of that party said that our Government is coming to Gujarat. He should now apologise to people.” — JP Nadda, BJP President
Similarly, the voters’ verdict this time has further strengthened the belief that even when all invasive public psychology of anti-incumbency still holds some weight, good governance too is sumptuously rewarded by the citizens. For example, the historic landslide victory of BJP in Gujarat confirms that effective governance to deliver an atmosphere of social security, development and public welfare play a decisive role in influencing the voting patterns among public at large – especially in neutralising the weight of caste and religious affiliations of the candidates as well as the voters.
Over the years, the electoral experience in a larger part of India has proven that the oratory skill of the leaders and the management of publicity and communication play an important role in influencing the voters’ mind. In the case of AAP winning an impressive majority in the MCD polls it would be a good subject of research for the communication practitioners and students on how to manage public perception even when odds are heavily against the party in the light of its prominent leaders cooling their heels in jail and facing serious charges of fraud and corruption.
Cong Outsourced its Ideology to Communists
The case study of Congress where the senior most leaders were almost missing from the poll campaigns, too was an interesting aspect of electioneering this time. Rahul Gandhi’s decision to remain almost aloof from the party’s electoral needs, especially in Gujarat, was too visible to ignore. Finally, when he decided to go to Gujarat on a flying visit, his provocative speech before a Gujarati tribal audience proved too devastating to the electoral prospects of the party. One wonders about the quality of political advice he was exposed to when for no obvious reason he once again insulted the highly revered freedom fighter Savarkar by calling him as “an agent of the British government”. Addressing a tribal audience he pronounced that this country actually belonged to the tribals but it is the BJP which wants to occupy their country. Unfortunately, both comments have their origin to the British invaders of India and their communist supporters during the freedom struggle. Ever after India attained Independence all these jargons have formed the basic vocabulary and ammunition of the Communists and the proletarian Church of India. Had Rahul read history of his own party, he could not have missed the fact that his own grandmother Indira Gandhi and Mahatma Gandhi used to respect and eulogise Veer Savarkar for his great contribution to the freedom struggle and his extraordinary sacrifice for the country. These unfortunate utterances of Rahul during an election campaign which was going to decide the fate of his party finally proved too expensive for himself and his party. It not only exposed his poor knowledge of history but also confirmed once again how the grand old party has outsourced its ideological faculty to the communists.
One was hoping that other senior leaders of Congress Party would have cautioned Rahul Gandhi against committing such blunders. But soon after the Himachal results confirmed that Congress was going to win the State Assembly, the Congress leaders were seen falling over each other to pass on the credit for this victory to Rahul Gandhi. The newly elected Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge lost no time in announcing that the real credit for the Himachal victory goes to Rahul and his ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’. All this is surely going to disappoint those Congress leaders and workers who were hoping that the party would learn from such follies and previous electoral drubbings or that the ‘election’ of Mr Kharge would end the over dominance of the Nehru-Gandhi family over the party. The results of the latest elections have yet another important fall out. It has thrown cold water on the enthusiasm of both Arvind Kejriwal’s AAP and the leaders of opposition parties who have been dying to form a ‘Mahagathbandhan’ against the BJP and its leader Narendra Modi during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. On the one hand, Kejriwal was hoping to emerge as an independent power centre or the final rallying figure of the entire opposition after his perceived miracle of winning a majority in the Gujarat and Himachal Assemblies. As the Don Quixotic dreams of Kejriwal lay shattered and crumbled in Gandhi Nagar and Shimla, the resounding victory of Modi in Gujarat too has sapped all hopes of the ‘Mahagathbandhan’ army.
