Beginning 2014, the Modi juggernaut, which appeared to have slowed down a bit during the 2024 general elections, seems to have once again caught steam to steamroll its opponents. This is manifest in the BJP’s string of impressive performances subsequently in the Assembly polls in Haryana, Maharashtra and, now, in Delhi. After the somewhat lacklustre show in the Lok Sabha polls last year despite the much-hyped “Ab ki bar 400 par” (this time 400 plus) campaign, the party seems to have now got its act together once again to bounce back strongly, without committing the same mistakes that caused setbacks.
Actually, some of the key attributes of the ideologically-driven and cadre-based party are its ability to regroup for a fast turnaround and quick learning. This is perhaps what has made the party expand pan India within such a reasonably short period of time. Without much ado, or indulging in the blame-game publicly, the party leadership goes on a huddle in case of any poll debacle. Citing an instance, realising the folly of ruffling the feathers of its parent organisation RSS during the 2024 Lok Sabha polls causing setbacks, the BJP was quick to mend its ways thereafter.
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And the rest, as they say, is history. The RSS pulled out all stops to campaign for the BJP in Haryana and Maharashtra months ahead of the Assembly polls, with astounding results for the latter. Similarly, it has been reported that the RSS volunteers initiated a massive voter awareness drive much before the Election Commission of India announced the poll schedule, and held over 50,000 drawing-room meetings across the national capital, ultimately contributing to the BJP’s emphatic win.
Likewise, the party’s internal management too is something that its opponents can take a lesson or two on how to run an organisation smoothly. Ideologically-committed, the party’s netas and karyakartas seemingly work towards a common goal as a cohesive unit right up to the booth level. Hence, despite being one of the largest political parties, the BJP is always seemingly quick to grasp the situation and make amends accordingly. Being cadre based, the party has always its eyes and ears firmly on the ground.
Thus, it is always first off the block — be it in creating new political narratives or setting new rules of the game. To cite a contrast, the country’s largest opposition party Congress has been singularly unsuccessful to create any new or counter-narrative ever since the Modi juggernaut began to roll, sans sporadic anti-Modi or anti- Adani/Ambani rhetoric. Its desperate attempts to resurrect caste-based politics too have failed to yield the desired dividends as people in general seem to have largely moved on. Actually, the opposition’s largely status quoist mindset is preventing them from churning out new ideas or narratives. And, without a vision, most of the opposition parties seemingly lack any mission, other than to topple the current dispensation with slogans that are failing to resonate with the masses.
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Stuck in the political rhetoric of 30 years ago and little realising that India has since moved on, these parties have been unable to gauge and adapt accordingly with the current mood of the people who seem to care two hoots about slogans of “secularism” (which many see as an euphemism for minority appeasement and vote bank politics, if not entirely communal) or freebies. It’s not without reason that the Congress under Rahul Gandhi’s leadership has lost 90 consecutive elections across the country.
On the other hand, the BJP has set its goals clearly – pursuing a strong nationalist agenda, complemented by aggressive brand of Hindutva. Its ever proactive approach has also helped it recalibrate strategies in sync with the popular aspirational mindset, but without totally ignoring the caste/ethnic arithmetic. No wonder, its aggressive ultra-nationalistic push with slogans like “Ek Bharat, Shrestha Bharat”, “Vishwaguru”, etc, seem to have caught the popular imagination, while fueling the popular aspirational mindset with programmes that help sustain the momentum of such an outlook.
Further, while election is still a five-year exercise to many parties, the BJP has transformed it into a 24x7x365 affair in the past 10 years, forcing the former to largely play a catch-up game. Compared to their rivals, the entire top brass of the party led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself are always in a poll mode round the year. They have set entirely a new paradigm in the country’s electioneering.
Finally, the BJP’s emphatic victory in the Delhi Assembly elections has also proved once again that politics isn’t always about bluster and propaganda, but a sustained campaign at the grassroots. While the AAP may have stolen the march over its arch rivals for a good 10 years and endeared itself with the masses through publicity and propaganda, it ultimately faltered in the face of the BJP’s well-crafted strategy that began to punch holes in Arvind Kejriwal’s rhetoric. This has shown that propaganda may be good in politics, but only up to a particular point, if not backed up by vision and proper strategy.
This is not to hail the BJP’s continued political ascendancy, but an attempt at understanding what makes it tick the right boxes most of the time. This isn’t a comprehensive analysis either of the party’s winning formulae, as there are other factors too contributing to its continued poll success. However, in public interest, the opposition parties would do well to get their acts together to provide a meaningful opposition to the ruling dispensation. After all, a strong opposition always augurs well for the health of any democratic polity.