By
Mriganka M Bhowmick
The
political scenario of India is taking a new direction. The recently held
elections of five states show that the electorates are taking decisions in such
a matured fashion that it has taken many election pundits by surprise. Surely,
accountability is sought from the political parties on governance and delivery.
In the election battle of India, political narrative is always based on GDP
which are Governance, Dynasty & Polarization. Every political party derives
strength from this GDP. But maintaining the order of this GDP as far as
importance is concerned is very important. If you change this order of
narrative to impress voters, it can backfire. The recent election result is a
reflection of that only. Once again voters have reminded the political bosses
that governance comes first, rest follows after that.
The
last important election mandates before the crucial 2019 Lok Sabha election is
of high importance for all the political parties to get a sense of electorate’s
mind and psyche, especially when it has covered the large chunk of politically
formidable Hindi Belt. Tough many have opined that the local issues have
dominated the elections outcome, but it is noteworthy to mention that
electorates have shown a clear inclination that they want to hear more on
development and governance in political discourses, unlike many previous
instances where cast, creed, dynasty and polarization along religious fault
line decided the election outcomes.
Not
to forget, Narendra Modi led BJP won the huge mandate of people in 2014 based
on promises of good governance and development. The discourses on dynastic
politics and religious polarization were still there but those were only of
miniscule importance. No doubt, these factors had contributed to the winning
side to consolidate its own constituency of voters, but promise of good
governance was the key. Surprisingly the preference of voters remains the same
even after four and half years. Misadventure to bring religious polarization in
forefront and personal attacks in the veil of dynasty-politics have became
up-the-ante for BJP.
Unlike
Telangana where the election was fought on the developmental plank by KTR , it
was a bitter fight between BJP and Congress in Hindi heart belt of MP,
Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh where the political discourse did not even spare
deceased father, mother, grandfather, grandmother of the opponents . Realizing
an anti-incumbency factor of BJP ruled states, the state election had been
metamorphosed to a fight of personality cult between Narendra Modi and Rahul
Gandhi, a supposedly clever move by BJP. Jibe against Rahul’s Gotra or Modi’s
cast and issues like soft Hindutva, hard Hindutva hijacked the political
discourse in these elections. Fringe elements having patronage of political
parties did their job dutifully by creating noise of religious polarization.
Delhi media houses covered and discussed those non-issues at length like
personality cult, Hindutva or Ram Mandir and a perception was crafted that the
elections were fought based on these trivial issues. All were discussed except
the state wise future plan on development, governance, farmer distress, Water,
jobs and new industry.
People
in good numbers thronged in the election rallies of Modi and Yogi which created
a superficial euphoria amongst the BJP and media that the election would result
an intended outcome. People listened to all of them patiently, but alas they
had something else in their mind. Post election there was analysis where it was
revealed that BJP lost 65% of the seats where Yogi had rallies, although the
effect of Modi’s rallies is a bit decent. A high pitch campaign around
development issues was missing, so were the voices of local state level
leaders. It appears that the grass root level party workers of congress had
created traction in booth level which resulted high turnout of voters in
polling day, which is always a sure sign of anti-incumbency.
Coming
to power by promulgating good governance and development is an age old practice
in politics where the incumbent government faces anti-incumbency. All the
political parties do that. BJP also did that in 2014 but Modi became just a bit
over enthusiast on promising. Those promises captured in bold at electorate’s
mind. This becomes a trap for BJP as these narratives supersede all other
narratives of BJP whether at state level or at central level. It is evident
from the fact that all the BJP ruled states always display achievements of all
public welfare schemes by promulgating it as Prime Minister’s vision and
mission of New India, even the local government’s initiatives fail to miss the
all encompassing Modi flavors as if everything is derived from Prime Minister
only.
These
have blurred the distinction of Centre and State Government’s work and
governance. That may be the directive of the party and its leadership. Then why
to blame local leaders after poll debacle? Deriving a distinct between Modi
factor and Local factor becomes insignificant. So aligning everything central
government schemes and using Modi’s popularity as a tool to win elections have
started giving diminishing returns. Needless to say, if BJP continues to so, it
will create further fatigue in the mind of the voters.
They
need to innovate further the strategy to win election. Issue of governance may
now look like a trap to seek support from voters. But still there are many good
initiatives taken by state and central governments which now need to be
executed with strong hands at short span of time. Honest narratives around
those initiatives will work and people of India may be willing to give more
time to Prime Minister Modi, who knows. Any other clever move by pushing
Polarization through Hindutva or Dynasty issues in the forefront will not yield
any positive poll dividend. Situation has changed and 2019 Lok Sabha election
is not far away. Let’s walk the talk on the execution of government initiatives
as governance comes first.
The post State Polls Signal New Narrative For 2019 Elections appeared first on Newspack by India Press Agency.
