When a party that won general elections with an overwhelming majority incurs a crushing defeat in a state to a party that came into existence just a couple of years back, you know that you are witnessing history. The Modi juggernaut was rolling on claiming win after win, in the general elections of 2014, assembly elections of Maharashtra, Haryana, Jharkhand and then in J&K. The party and its supporters were on cloud nine when electoral tragedy struck, which has brought down all of them to earth. The combination of the master speaker Narendra Modi and the master strategist and the former’s right hand man, Amit Shah has been running the party as their fiefdom and all important decisions of the party have been taken by them. Therefore as the credit of the election victories deservedly went to them, the responsibility of this huge loss must also rest with them. Out of 70 seats in Delhi, BJP was able to win only 3 seats, 29 seats less than what they got in 2013. AAP, under the leadership of Arvind Kejriwal, made a virtual clean sweep as they won 67 of the remaining seats. How did BJP slump to such a huge loss in Delhi?
Though they boast about and roam around the country claiming to be master strategists, Modi and Shah made the strategic mistake of not calling for elections in Delhi along with elections in Maharashtra, Haryana and Jharkhand. It is still unclear what made them postpone the decision for so long. One line of thought is that the duo assumed that in a few months, after the defeat in the general elections, AAP will disintegrate and disappear into oblivion. In that case BJP could have had a free run with no strong opposition to counter them. However in the intervening months what happened was something the duo didn’t expect. Instead of disintegrating, AAP strengthened their grass-root level actions and their volunteers. They worked with the common man and created a strong base that flung into action during the elections. When BJP’s state leadership and activists were involved in deep infighting, AAP’s activists and leaders were concentrating on rebuilding their lost trust after the 49 day government resigned much to people’s discontent. Kejriwal was forthright in apologising to the people for his ill-advised move and requested Delhi-ites to give him another chance to make immense.
Anti-establishment emotions have been very strong in India in general and in a state like Delhi in particular. During the run up to the 2014 general elections, Narendra Modi was able to position himself as someone who is not an insider of the establishment. He made good use of his chaiwallah image, which made common people believe that he was one among them. He positioned himself as the underdog who was fighting against the corrupt establishment, which was Congress. However, after assuming power at the centre as the Prime Minister of the country, Modi lost his image as the common man. His high profile foreign visits, which squandered a lot of public money, came for criticism from the public. The 10 lakh suit with his name printed on it that he wore during the Republic Day celebration established him in the public eye as a narcissistic leader who gives a lot of importance to self image and lavish lifestyle, a characteristic feature of those in the establishment. His arrogance and sometimes laughable show of self-importance were on display on all his public appearances, which flashed into the public’s eye through live television coverage.
Narendra Modi had been the star campaigner for BJP in the general elections and state elections after that. However signs of his losing popularity was evident when only a very few numbers turned out to listen to him in the first public rally he addressed in Delhi. This made Amit Shah understand that Modi wave was not going to work wonders for the party in Delhi. He understood that BJP needed someone with big public acceptance as the BJP’s leader to counter the Kejriwal effect. For that Shah inducted Kiran Bedi to the party and made her party’s Chief Ministerial candidate. But this didn’t augur well for the party as long time BJP workers felt let down by Amit Shah on bringing an outsider as their leader. Public was also able to see through the dishonest political ambitions of a late turncoat like Ms. Bedi. She was not able to garner the support of her party or gain the trust of her electorate.
When BJP understood that they are losing their battle against AAP in Delhi, they resorted to a lot of mudslinging to discredit AAP. Such a negative campaign didn’t go down well with the people of Delhi. BJP roped in their 120 MPs and 25 ministers of Central government for the negative campaign against AAP. Even Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, otherwise known as a lady of impeccable integrity and dignity, was used to disgrace AAP, where she called AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal a ‘chor’ on the issue of alleged dubious donations to AAP. BJP used cartoons to bring disrepute to Kejriwal and even dragged his family into it. All these negative campaign tactics not only didn’t work for the BJP but also backfired on them.
Another reason why BJP had to face a terrible loss in Delhi is because it was unable to reign in the divisive, Hindutva elements. Delhi voters were clever enough to understand the sectarian agenda of those bigots who attempted to dictate their cultural and lifestyle choices. The likes of Sakshi Maharaj and Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti have alienated the liberals in the country from the BJP. Though the aspirational young voters of the country are not moved by the traditional politics over ‘secularism’, which often means minority appeasement, they are not influenced by the inflammatory statements made by the Hindutva elements in BJP either. The Hindutva elements in BJP are not the fringe elements, they are mainstream elements, and it is the development-oriented people who are the fringe elements in BJP. With his silence on such utterances made by the extremist elements in his party, Narendra Modi appeared to have a silent complicity in these acts. If he remains silent people will believe that he connives with those in the party who take forward disruptive Hindutva policies like Ghar Wapsi.
Narendra Modi should now understand that his hollow promises of development won’t work anymore and unless he fulfils his promises with some real work on the ground his popularity will sink to deep depths pretty soon. He should stop playing the role of a King with his ostentatious display of costly suits, lavish foreign trips and orchestrated stage performances abroad. Instead he should get down from his thrown and should work to better the lives of millions of people who voted for him after believing his promises of a better India.
BJP has credited the Modi wave with their emphatic performance in the state elections in Maharashtra, Haryana, Jharkhand and in J&K. But now when they have slumped to one of their biggest defeats, the party is trying desperately to save Modi’s face. If the win was because of the rampant Modi wave, this loss is certainly because the wave is waning in strength and has ceased to be rampant. Moreover, if the party is not ready to consider the Delhi loss as a dangerous sign and continue to derive satisfaction on the technical fact that it has maintained its vote percentage in Delhi, then the party is all set for a nosedive into further embarrassment.
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