NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Modi new strategy is to surround the Congress with new issues in every phase.
No one seems to be certain which way the Lok Sabha election is unfolding. While the ruling party is trying to appear pleased, the Opposition is hoping for change. Even the experts are in no position to say anything. Both the ruling and Opposition parties have not been able to generate much enthusiasm among voters until now. All parties seem confused about the issues. The ruling BJP had all the issues in its favour, because of which it seemed that the election would be one-sided this time.
However, as soon as the election was announced, the BJP’s strategists made a mistake. They possibly assumed that everything would happen on its own. After the consecration ceremony of Lord Ram’s idol in the Ram temple in Ayodhya on January 22, the Opposition too had given up. Congress leaders decided to stay away from the elections. Candidate lists were prepared somehow. Due to the fear of Ayodhya, the Congress did not seem inclined to fight the elections. The candidates fought the elections on their own. After the relatively low voter turnout in the first and second phases, the activity of Congress leaders increased.
But even if the Opposition may be feeling hopeful for the lack of any wave, they are not claiming victory. But Rahul Gandhi, his sister Priyanka, and party president Mallikarjun Kharge have increased their rallies, and Congress’ hopes have started to rise.
The question is why a one-sided election suddenly took this turn. Although the results cannot be predicted yet, BJP certainly made the strategic mistake of holding the consecration of the idol of Ram Lalla in January and not on Ram Navami in April, which would have helped the party. After that, there was no campaign for Ayodhya in the country.
Instead of Ayodhya and Ram, the election got centred around Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The slogan of 400 plus became big. BJP leaders and workers concluded that they did not need to do anything now. The decision to cut tickets without evaluation also does not seem correct. For example, V.K. Singh from Ghaziabad and Rahul Kaswan from Churu, Rajasthan, were not given tickets. Both leaders have a clean image. V.K. Singh’s removal made the Rajputs angry. Rahul Kaswan immediately joined the Congress and got a ticket. The Jats were already angry with BJP in Rajasthan and caste politics heated up in the state.
Union Minister Purushottam Rupala’s statement on Rajputs created dissatisfaction among Rajputs across the country and caste politics became an issue across the country.
It seems the Opposition’s message that the BJP would remove reservation if elected also started having an impact on the ground. A message was sent down to the tehsil level that the BJP would abolish reservation. Its impact was seen in the voting in the first phase. So from Prime Minister Modi to the entire BJP changed their strategy. Instead of emphasising on the slogan of 400-plus, they started emphasizing that reservation would not be abolished. From there the election turned towards new issues. Meanwhile, Congress and the entire I.N.D.I Alliance made abolishing reservation a major issue. The BJP and the RSS were able to bring the situation under control only by the third phase.
After that Prime Minister Modi started focusing the campaign towards Congress and Rahul Gandhi. From the Congress’ election manifesto to old cases, everything was highlighted to charge the Congress of Muslim appeasement. Congress got stuck in its own trap.
Controversial statements from Sam Pitroda, who is a close associate of the Gandhi family, and Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury did not help matters. BJP made their statements an issue. It is clear from Prime Minister Modi’s new strategy that he will target Congress in every phase and surround Congress with new issues every time so that the election is seen as Modi vs Rahul.