PM Modi’s honeymoon with people waning?

Is Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s honeymoon with the people beginning to wane? There are ample indications of this going by the outcome of the assembly elections particularly in Gujarat, the home state of Modi. While the saffron brigade enjoyed wide support in the urban areas, there was an unmistakable backing for the Congress party in the rural areas. This brought about a subdued cheer in the grand old party as it had played an effective role in ensuring that the BJP was nowhere near achieving its over ambitious target of 150 seats in the 182-member state assembly. Its tally was one short of the 100 mark. The discernible anti-incumbency against the BJP having ruled Gujarat over the last two decades cannot be wished away. This has provided much food for thought to the Lotus party to do a reality check.

At the same time, efforts by the Congress to build caste or social alliances proved effective in its stronghold. The Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti gave the Congress a shot in the arm in the Saurashtra-Kutch region. Simultaneously, backward classes leader Alpesh Thakor and Jignesh Mewani who organised Dalits against attacks by Hindutva vigilantes facilitated the Congress gain support from a wider social base. Both have entered the state assembly and assured their followers of taking up their cause.

The BJP’s best in Gujarat has been 127 seats so far. If winning was all that mattered, it was no mean achievement for the Lotus party having emerged victorious for the sixth consecutive time. The party’s triumph in Himachal Pradesh helped it regain power in the hill state. However, BJP’s chief ministerial candidate Prem Kumar Dhumal lost to his Congress rival proved to be a dampener even though the party won nearly two thirds of the seats in the 68-member HP assembly.

At the same time, Gujarat watchers believe that the competition in that state has woken up the Congress to posing a greater challenge to the BJP in the nine states going to the polls next year including Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chattisgarh. While the Congress has strong leaders in some of these states, Modi’s advantage might be far less than in Gujarat. The odds seemed stacked against the BJP this time due to resentment on a host of issues including demonetisation and GST.

What has stood out is that the voters cannot be taken for granted. One of the worrying aspects is that the distress among the farmers across the country including Gujarat as well as growing unemployment needs to be addressed on a priority basis. While the number of BJP ruled states in the country has increased to 19 and the India map swathed in Saffron, the writ of the Congress party runs only in Karnataka and Punjab.

The Congress came a cropper in Himachal Pradesh as the old war horse Virbhadra Singh got little support from the party establishment in the national capital. He also had to contend with rebel candidates who cut into the party votes. Making matters worse were the corruption charges against the outgoing chief minister and the abject mishandling of the Kotkhai rape case. The task ahead for Rahul having taken over the presidentship of the Congress barely three days back is giving a push to tolerance of dissent, pluralism and cultural diversity coupled with assiduously steering clear of any communal agenda.

He has to chart out his political and ideological agenda for directing the party organisation which is in shambles. It is imperative for him to be clear about the political agendas of his opponents in the country’s system. Compounding matters are more than two score affiliates of the RSS, the ideologue of the BJP.  Rahul cannot side step Modi’s agenda of striving for a “Congress Mukt Bharat” or an India without the Grand Old Party. He also needs to perk up the party organisation in the states along with boosting leaders having a mass base as evidenced in the past.  Further, it is important for him to infuse a sense of camaraderie among Congressmen to end the intense infighting and divisiveness which has been the bane of the party.

The writer is a senior journalist and commentator.