By: Satyendra Kumar Singh, Editor-ICN
LUCKNOW: What else can be a rewarding day for Indian democracy that a party with full majority takes the throne twice in a row. This party was once mocked upon for having a mere 2 members in the parliament and now it finds virtually no competitors across be it the Congress or the local alliances.
Some of the major findings that we see is that Congress which placed 21 candidates in Western UP managed to get only 1 seat and couldn’t manage to save the deposits of the candidates including its state president Raj Babbar.
However, Samajwadi Party has drastically improved its strike rate by wining 5 out 37 seats this time when compared with its win in 2014 where it placed 78 candidates. The people are becoming more aware and are using NOTA. In fact, there were five seats where NOTA votes were more than the margin of defeat and this includes one seat where BJP lost.
The vote share of BJP has gone up dramatically since 2014. At some places, it has gone beyond 50%. However, even the much talked about Maha Gath Bandhan, could not make much difference. Now on an interesting note, we find that three Mother-Son duo in the Parliament; Rahul Gandhi & Sonia Gandhi, Varun Gandhi & Maneka Gandhi and Sunny Deol & Hema Malini while we see only one father-son duo i.e. Akhilesh Yadav and Mulayam Yadav.
While analyzing the best performing states for Congress, we find that it is PK (Punjab & Kashmir) shot for them. They need to re-strategize to avoid any kind of ‘firki’ in future.
While we dive deep in the election results, we find that the common masses viewed Modi as the best placed to take care of micro-economic affairs. Many voters were touched by at least one of the many social service schemes launched by the Modi government, ranging from toilets to cooking gas connections and affordable housing.
When it comes to the brand faces, 43 percent of Indians wanted to see Modi again as prime minister. The results speak when we find that Rahul Gandhi could make a modest improvement in his position yet the gap is highly significant.
It is perhaps that voters feel a close attachment to a leader and it is felt that it rose significantly after the terrorist attack followed by airstrikes on terrorist camps in Pakistan. So, they found the leadership, decisiveness and muscularity in Modi.
The national security became more sought upon issue than unemployment and other social issues. Even the nationalist ideology became gradually more accepted among some quarters of Indian society.
Another peculiar step that Modi took was refraining from the press conferences (apart from a one during which he hardly spoke). However, he had his interview shot by the ‘soft’ journalists only. Now, it would be interesting to see whether, Modi continues the same strategy or not; after all it is nothing else than his ‘Man ki Baat’
The resultant of such varied factors is that this would be second time in a row when there will be no leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha. This is a matter of concern for the institution called democracy.
Starting from 1950s, the Congress had been a party with its apparent and politically dominant ideology which was not going well with the people with nationalists’ ideology and the RSS was sought as an alternative. RSS had been working at booth level since long and now the results are awarded in the style of the Chinese Bamboo.
Since, the local parties are failing to mark their presence, it is the responsibility of the oldest party of the country to take certain responsible and proactive measures to both revive itself as a national party and build a visible and sustainable alliance of regional parties, failing which year 2024 would be difficult era for them.
The steps must be taken now and the so-called resignation drama must end to mark the sincere steps towards re-establishment of the vibrant opposition party. A tit-for-tat strategy must match the strategy of BJP, be it in the terms of being immensely active on traditional and social media, be it in terms of leading from the front. Now, in the changed scenario, Congress must work upon a viable alternative ideology.
