The magnitude of the saffron surge has left the nation and political pundits gasping. Congress scion, Rahul Gandhi, who led the party to a historic rout had no answer to the BJP Prime Ministerial candidate, Narendra Modi’s brutal charge at the hustings. Leading the lotus brigade, Modi singlehandedly crafted a historic win with the BJP scoring an all time high of 284 seats while the NDA bagged nearly 340 Lok Sabha berths.
A decimated UPA managed to lead only on 58 seats of which Congress was hoping to secure 44 Lok Sabha berths — its worst ever electoral performance. “India has won. Good days are coming,” said Modi in his victory speech at Vadodara in Gujarat. For the BJP, it was not a wave, but a “Modi “tsu-namo”.
After 1984, BJP has emerged as a political outfit, which could form a government on its own. It remains to be seen whether this could be the beginning of an end of coalition politics.
The enormity of the defeat could be the beginning of the end of the Nehru-Gandhi clan — if Modi plays his cards well. The rout is so severe that the Congress led UPA was struggling to secure the 10 per cent vote share needed to get the status of Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha.
Defeating the relentless attempts of the Congress and Opposition to brand Modi as a “divisive” figure, the chaiwallah emerged as a dream merchant, a saviour, who could extricate the nation from a government which was plagued by corruption charges and policy paralysis. The verdict as Modi said at his victory speech at Vadodara in Gujarat was “in favour of development.”
Despite vilification by his opponents who described him as a “butcher,” “elder brother of a dog’s pup,” “goon,” Modi in his speeches stuck to his development plank. “Mera ek hi agenda hain - aur woh hain vikas ( I have only one agenda and that’s development),” he repeated in his electoral speeches. If the voters rejected Rahul Gandhi’s attempt to sell MNREGA and other achievements of the UPA, Modi marketed his Gujarat model with elan.
In Uttar Pradesh with 80 Lok Sabha berths, Modi’s development plank crushed the barriers of caste politics, decimating Mandal satraps like Mulayam Singh Yadav of Samajwadi party and Mayawati of BSP. In Bihar, his Gujarat model decimated Lalu Yadav-led RJD and Nitish Kumar’s JD(U).
It was, however, Trinamul Congress supremo, Ms Mamata Banerjee, AIADMK chief, Ms J. Jayalalitha and the BJD boss Naveen Patnaik who repulsed Mr Modi’s brutal charge.
In Tamil Nadu, the AIADMK won 37 of the 39 seats, In West Bengal Trinamul Congress was taking 33 of the 42 seats and in Orissa BJD was ahead in 19 of 21 seats. The AIADMK supremo, Ms J. Jayalalitha, emerged as the third largest party. Mr Modi’s historic victory and the verdict of 2014 could be an indication that caste politics is on the wane.
In a Harijan basti near the Cantonment area in Varanasi, Anand Kumar Chaurasia, a paan show owner, sat wearing the cap of Samajwadi Party. When asked whether he was all set to vote for SP’s candidate, Kailash Prasad Chaurasia, he promptly took off the cap and said — “Bahut ho gayan jaat par vote - is baar vikas ke liye vote denge (Enough of voting on the basis of caste — this time I will vote for development).”
In Bari Malliya Harijan basti, which is dominated by the doms (the undertakers) — traditonal Congress vote bank was also shifting. Suresh Goga, leader of the undertakers in the slum when asked who he was voting for, he showed the lotus symbol on his palm. “We have been voting Congress. This time it’s Modi,” he smiled. “The country needs development, we need development, Modi can deliver,” he insisted.
In a dalit belt at Phulpur in eastern UP, 26-year-old Shabd Kumar, who had been voting for Mayawati’s BSP, said: “All along we have been voting BSP. Our situation has not improved. There’s no job. Not only me and my friends will vote for Modi but we are going to make sure our parents do too.”
It was clear from the views of a Chaurasia, an undertaker and a Dalit that the OBCs were shifting. In western UP, the Jats had already moved towards Modi and his development plank. But behind this was also the Jat anger against the Muslims, which was fuelled by the Muzaffarnagar riots. Mr Modi’s close aide, Amit Shah stoked the fire when in a speech at a Jat-dominated constituency, he said: “This time it’s a vote for revenge.”
The BJP bared its communal fang and quickly concealed it under the development plank. The mix of communal politics and the mantra for development was lethal for the Opposition in Jaat dominated western UP. Jat leader, Ajit Singh and his son, Jayant of RLD were routed in western UP. The BJP swept eastern western and central UP.
A similar story was repeated in Bihar. There were reports that Lalu Prasad Yadav-led RJD was rapidly consolidating its lost MY (Muslim- Yadav) combination and the OBCs were rushing towards the outfit. Political experts were left stunned as the Modi juggernaut stopped RJD at only four seats with the entire Lalu clan, his wife, Rabri Devi, daughter Misa losing from Chhapra and Pataliputra respectively. Of the 40 seats in Bihar, BJP had secured at least 28 seats.
Besides the development plank, this elections witnessed a saffron propaganda blitzkrieg never seen before. Sitting in Gandhinagar, the Modi team carried out an aggressive campaign cutting across various mediums and platforms with clinical precision. While Modi zipped across the country addressing rally after rally while clocking over 3 lakh kilometers, a dedicated team of professionals worked relentlessly to ensure that their leader’s mass appeal gets converted into votes.
Amit Shah and his team worked on the campaign called “Mission 272 +”, exploiting new age technology to the maximum. The critical IT team was headed by Arvind Gupta who single handedly masterminded Mr Modi’s entire campaign on the social media, which is now being said to have matched that of US President Barack Obama when he ran for President twice.
Mr Modi had as many as 13 million likes on Facebook and close to a whopping 4 million followers. Thanks to innovative marketing in the virtual world by Mr Gupta and his team, Mr Modi was one of the most closely tracked celebrities on the internet.
Another key campaigner, Prashant Kishor, chalked out Mr Modi’s tour plans working out the logistics. Mr Modi’s personal assistant Om Prakash Chandel was responsible for feeding him constantly with all the political information, particularly the scathing attacks launched on him by his political rivals. This helped Mr Modi prepare a comprehensive political response.
Rishi Raj Singh, a chemical engineer who graduated from IIT, monitored the movements of 350 Narendra Modi raths through GPS, which were sent to what is known as the “dark areas” in UP. These “dark areas’’ did not have access to either newspapers or television, and thus had to be informed about the Modi phenomenon.
Sample this — Modi addressed 437 rallies, did over 5,000 roadshows and 3D rallies, touring 25 states. The party also outwitted the Congress by cobbling up a 25-party “rainbow coalition,” which matched the performance of big brother BJP. The rainbow coalition is also an indication that BJP could be all set to replace Congress as an umbrella for a coalition politics.
Badri Narayan, a social scientist who teaches at G.B. Pant Social Science Institute in Allahabad, did not seem to have any love lost for the BJP PM candidate. He too conceded that “Mr Modi has made his mark.” Somewhat grudgingly, he admitted that “aspiration for a better life has been cutting across the deep rooted caste politics in Uttar Pradesh.”
He argued that the creamy layer of the Yadavs, dalits and OBCs were now aspiring for a better lifestyle and a healthy economy. They feel Mr Modi is the answer to all the economic ills that have hit the country in the last 10 years. For them, Gujarat is nothing less than a Utopia.
It is clear that Mr Modi has been able to hardsell his Gujarat dream to people. He has also been able to make an impact following his rhetoric and ‘command over Hindi’, the social scientist felt. He complained that none of Mr Modi’s political rivals “has been able to call Mr Modi’s bluff and expose the truth about Gujarat.”
He also pointed out that the propaganda machinery of Mr Modi was ‘far superior’ to that of the Congress, SP and BSP put together. Reports trickling in from Gujarat that of the 26 seats, Modi might stop at 18. Not only Modi bagged all the 26 seats but won them with a whopping margin of 5.7 lakh votes from Vadodara. Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand were “Modified.”
Standing at the political crossroads is Congress. Arrogance, a poor campaign strategy, failure to connect with the voters and lacklusture speeches by Rahul Gandhi spelled doom for the outfit. Senior party leader Mani Shankar Aiyar’s brazen attempt to ridicule Modi as chaiwallah not merely boomeranged on the party, but gave BJP the handle to reach out to the poor. As Aiyar huffed and puffed on television screens, Modi’s “chai pe charcha” captured nation’s imagination.
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra moved between her brother’s constituency at Amethi and her mother’s constituency at Rae Bareli. As Modi kept gunning for “Shehezada” Rahul Gandhi and “sarkari damad” — Robert Vadra, the Gandhi son-in-law, Priyanka batted for her family. Her speeches were confined to what her family has done for the country and “how strongly she felt” about BJP’s attack on her husband.
While Modi crisscrossed the country, the Congress ran scared of taking Priyanka Gandhi out of the Congress bastions in UP. The party hoped that Priyanka’s barbs on Modi led BJP from the safe haven of Amethi and Rae Bareli would rock the saffron chariot. Nothing of the sort happened. Questions are now being asked about the impact of the much hyped Priyanka “magic.”
That the Congress campaign was lazy became evident when one visited the Taj hotel in Varanasi during campaigning. While the AAP and BJP leaders sweated it out in the cruel, blistering heat on the streets of Varanasi, the Congress top guns were cooling their heels in the air conditioned comfort of five star hotels, taking photographs with their admirers and Bollywood stars.
There was no sense of urgency, no sense of concern. With times changing and the nature of voters, Rahul’s attempt to parachute into politics and grab the top post was rejected by the country. Rahul had also become a major target of ridicule in the social media.
His media team led by Ajay Maken failed to counter BJP’s media management. Congress’ minority cell remained invisible on the ground and could not consolidate the Muslim vote bank in its favour, despite the fact that minority community had “united against Modi,” a senior Congress functionary said.
