The brute majority for BJP is indicative of the fact that Indian electorate want country to have strong and decisive leadership on top Win
Shabir Ahmad
As the Prime Minister Narendra Modi is all set to take oath as India’s premier on Thursday (May 30) after the resounding victory of his right-wing ultra-nationalist Bharatiya Janta Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in the recently concluded six-week long electoral exercise, a history of sorts was created. For the first time in the history of independent India, any prime minister was returned to power with such a landslide majority in the lower house of the Parliament. The size of Modi’s victory was unexpected, surpassing his party’s winning performance in 2014.
This brute majority for Modi is indicative of the fact that the Indian electorate has made use of his/her franchise to ensure decisiveness, robust and a muscular leadership at the helm who can deliver on both expected and unexpected terms. Nationalism and inflated Indian pride has been the dominant themes of this election, and has acted as grist for the electoral mill. The routine issue of ‘sadak, bijli and pani’ and the campaign by the opposition, particularly by the congress party, to draw the attention of the electorate towards the pressing issues of economic slowdown, joblessness, corruption and farmers’ distress, got subsumed in the cacophony of voices of nationalism, national pride and national security raised by the ruling party.
It is this messaging by BJP about the national security and the muscular face of Mr Modi and his party that could connect a cord with the electorate, and the results of this are for everyone to see. The Pulwama attack, and the subsequent Balakote strikes, and the way Mr Modi capitalised on this through perception management and using the messaging that ‘only-Modi-can-teach-Pakistan-a-lesson’ by ‘entering-into-their-home’ gave BJP the 2019 election on its platter.
Nothing worked before it, not even the protracted “smear” campaign launched by the opposition, particularly Congress, against Mr Modi and BJP president Mr Amit Shah. Congress President Mr Rahul Gandhi’s slogan of “chokidaar chor hai” found no buyers in the India’s election market.
Precisely predicted by couple of exit polls, the six-week long election for Indian Parliament, which began on April 11 and culminated on May 23, Modi’s BJP got 302 seats on its own and his party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) about 350 seats in the 17th Lok Sabha, well above the 272-seat majority mark. Congress, the main opposition party, was restricted to mere 52 seats. There will be no Leader of Opposition in the upcoming Lower House for a second consecutive term.
So Modi and Amit Shah had the last laugh in this long drama of allegations and counter allegations. “The vote is a mandate for a new India,” Modi told hundreds of cheering supporters on May 23 night, when the counting of votes was almost over and it was clear that Modi’s ultra-nationalist party, or the BJP, got the landslide majority. As his supporters showered him with flower petals, he retorted: “If someone has won today, it’s the country. If someone has won today, it’s this democracy.”
The biggest takeaways in this election were the BJP’s stellar performance even in states and constituencies considered safe bet for the Congress. Rahul Gandhi’s defeat in Amethi, and the complete or near complete hammering of congress in states likes Karnataka, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, where the party is in power, is more shocking.
The BJP also made unprecedented gains in West Bengal, and has threatened the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress’ dominance in the state. West Bengal witnessed a saffron surge as the BJP inflicted a deadly blow by winning 19 of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in the state. TMC won 22 seats.
The Election Commission said that a record number of people roughly 600 million people had turned up to cast their ballot and voter participation was more than 67%, making it the largest-ever democratic exercise. More than 900 million people were eligible to vote in the polls.
The election analysts say that in this year’s elections, political parties resorted to their “traditional playbook of identity politics” to shore up support for their candidates.
“Political parties and key figures have, in recent weeks, spent more time hurling insults than debating policy proposals to tackle the country’s challenges,” an election analyst said earlier this week.
Even if BJP appears dominant, analysts said that the party will still need the support of its allies within the coalition to pass politically contentious major reforms — such as amendments to India’s land and labor laws, disinvestment policies and subsidy reforms.
They will “continue to require intra-party consultations and support from other allies in the NDA as well as from state governments, before coming to fruition,” said the analyst, not comfortable in getting quoted by name.
Jammu and Kashmir
In Jammu and Kashmir, the 2019 LoK Sabha polls too culminated on more or less expected lines. The National Conference won three Kashmir seats while BJP retained two in Jammu region and one in Ladakh. While BJP’s win in Jammu was on expected lines owing to allegiance of majority of electorate in the region to the BJP’s ideology, the win in Ladakh for the party was dramatic, as Congress gave the seat on platter to the saffron party. The congress party had two candidates in fray in Ladakh, one official and one unofficial as independent, and both cut each other’s votes much to the benefit of BJP.
The win of a political novice and National Conference Candidate Hasnain Masoodi from South Kashmir parliamentary seat defeating political heavyweights, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president and former chief minister of J&K Ms Mehbooba Mufti and Congress’s Kashmir face Ghulam Ahmad Mir, was a spectacular development. Mehbooba was restricted to third position in the constituency considered a fiefdom, or a bastion, of her party. Emergence of Er Rasheed, chairman of his Awami Ittehad Party, who fought as an independent candidate from Baramulla constituency, as a game changer in north Kashmir’s electoral politics was also the big take away from this exercise in Kashmir.
What could be the fate of Kashmir now as the new government is all set to take charge at New Delhi? It is to be seen in the context of the statement made by Prime Minister about the minorities.
Modi has said that there should be no discrimination against anyone in the name of religion and caste and “we must not leave anyone behind”.
Addressing the NDA leaders in Central Hall of the Parliament after he was elected as NDA parliamentary party leader, he said: “We have to win the trust of minorities who have been neglected earlier and only used for vote bank politics. The way the poor have been cheated, the minorities have been deceived the same way.”
While giving a new mantra – Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas and Sabka Vishwas, Modi said that it would have been better if their education and health had been in focus.
Speaking on the occasion, Amit Shah said that it has been a historic mandate and the nation has blessed NDA and Modi from all corners of the country.
He said people of the country believed in Narendra Modi’s vision and for the first time NDA has a verdict without caste, dynasty and appeasement.
Wish the Modi-led new government start the process of trust building from Kashmir, and start the process of ending the decades long hostile environment in Valley, and usher an era of peace, dignity and development in Kashmir.
Narendra Modi will be sworn in as the Prime Minister on May 30, the Rashtrapati Bhavan has said. “The President will administer the oath of Office and secrecy to the Prime Minister and other members of Union Council of Ministers on 30.05.2019 at 07.00 p.m.,”a communiqué from the Rashtrapati Bhavan said. The ceremony will be held at the Rashtrapati Bhavan.
