NEW DELHI: Congress forgot other issues as Rahul Gandhi and his team focused only on reservation and caste politics.
After six phases of the Lok Sabha elections, indications are that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is going to form an NDA government for the third time. Although the results will be known on 4 June, but BJP’s changed strategy seems to have worked. The face of the Prime Minister, the issues of Ram temple, nationalism and taking back POK seem to be having an impact after the second phase. Meanwhile, the huge surge in the share market on Friday is indicating that the NDA government is coming back again. Prime Minister Modi himself has said that the share market will boom as soon as the NDA government is formed on 4 June.
On the other hand, it looks like that Congress harping on Constitution being in danger and caste politics, united the upper castes against the party. As for the reserved castes, OBCs were not affected much by the Congress’ rhetoric. Prime Minister Modi’s strategy of taking on Congress and Rahul Gandhi directly proved effective. Congress forgot other issues as Rahul Gandhi and his team focused only on reservation and caste politics. The issue of farmers became secondary. Rahul Gandhi’s angry outbursts on caste politics caused a lot of harm. He made caste the central issue after he was led to be believe by Lalu Yadav and Nitish Kumar, who was then with the Congress, that a caste census would pave the Congress’ return to power. The whole plan was to divide Hindus along caste lines and make them turn away from their religious identity. There is no doubt that Dalits, Backwards and Muslims coming together is considered enough to change any government. In states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, parties like SP, BSP and RJD got power by doing this politics. But Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Sangh started exposing the old mistakes of earlier Congress governments. To keep the Hindus united, the reservation given to Muslims during the Congress rule was made into a big issue. Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath made bringing back Pakistan-occupied Kashmir into a big issue. Meanwhile, the statements of Pakistani leaders and violence in POK also fuelled the issue.
Most importantly, it became apparent that a strong undercurrent of the Ram temple issue was working on the ground, which can benefit BJP. Also, Rahul Gandhi becoming the opposition’s face in front of the Prime Minister seems to have gone in favour of the BJP. Bhupesh Baghel even declared Rahul Gandhi the PM face while campaigning in Rae Bareli.
In Delhi, the alliance with Aam Aadmi Party may prove to be costly for the Congress. Firstly, there was a split in Delhi Congress itself and secondly, the case of assault on Swati Maliwal in Kejriwal’s residence caused great damage. Maliwal’s case became a big issue in Haryana and Delhi.
It will be known on 4 June, whose issues worked more— the BJP’s or the Congress’.