- Vincent Kundukulam
Some posts that captured far attention in the social media after the announcement of the parliamentary election result were the following: ‘Indian people have given a verdict that will be remembered for a very long time in Indian politics.’ ‘In this election, the alliance that happen to win is the one really defeated and the alliance that lost the election has really won the game’. Never in the history of nation we have heard about such an election, in which all the political parties contested have altogether become content about the results.
BJP is happy because it could form government at the Centre consecutively for a third time, a credit which only Congress could claim after independence. Besides, it performed well in the states of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand. With the help of the allies like TDP in Andhra Pradesh and JD(U) in Bihar, it bagged the seats needed to form the government. Though it failed short of the magic number of 400, its victory cannot be ignored it had to face the anti-incumbency factor as it was continuously in power for one decade.
Coming to the Congress Party, it has several reasons to be the happiest of the election. Under the leadership of Mallikarjun Kharge, the party was able to lead an alliance of 28 parties without huge problems and it emerged as the second largest party in the country. It hardly had any money to make the campaign as BJP had frozen its bank accounts. The BJP assaulted not only Congress but also all the major parties in the opposition using the government machineries like the ED, CIB, Judiciary, Press, etc. In spite of and in the midst of these turbulences, Congress bagged 99 seats, and together with its allies, it managed to raise the strength of opposition to 234 seats.
As far as Rahul Gandhi is concerned, this election was very crucial. If he had not made significant improvement in getting votes for the party, his political career would have been in an impasse. At present, people are happy about his performance although he could not gain the seats needed to form the government. He won both the seats he contested and proved that he has base in the southern and northern parts of the country. Thanks to the two Bharat Jodo Yatras, he took the party back to the people. The campaign he made was one of the toughest that any political leader might have undertaken in the Independent India. BJP has realized that it cannot simply disregard Rahul as he has now become also the leader of the opposition.
Like Rahul Gandhi, the country saw the upsurge of a few other leaders throughout the nation. In Uttar Pradesh, Akhilesh Yadav restored his status as a powerful figure with a national role. SP became the third largest party in Lok Sabha after BJP and Congress. Contrary to exit poll predictions, Mamata Banerjee raised her strength in Lok Sabha from 22 in 2019 to 29 seats. M.K. Stalin led DMK and its allies to a clean sweep in Tamil Nadu. Uddhav Thackeray emerged as the real inheritor of Balasaheb Thackeray’s political legacy. Now he can lure back those who had left him for Shinde. The minorities in the country are also glad because BJP did not get the two third majority, necessary to make fundamental amendments in the Constitution. The write-ups like, ‘the people of India have saved the Constitution and democracy’ appeared in the foreign press show that they are also happy about the election results in India.
However, the happiest thing I find about this election is, people have shown that they cannot be always mesmerized with the communal issues. BJP tried, as in the past, to arouse religious sentiments of Hindus speaking about Ayodhya temple, Islamic fanaticism, danger of minority rights etc. The alliance I.N.D.I.A. resisted this campaign of hatred with issues touching the life of ordinary people like hike in price for essential commodities, scarcity of labor, poverty, need to save the Constitution, rights of the oppressed groups like the Dalits and the Tribals. In conclusion, it is also to be noted, as Subodh Ghildiyal wrote in The Times of India of 5 June 2024, that the caste factor has not lost its potential to woo votes in India.
