In my opinion, the mandate of the decade has come, and the BJP has retained its power in its ‘role-model’ state of Gujarat.
But whose win is this? Modi, the BJP or the people of Gujarat? I am not going to give my opinion based on my political preference. A close fight and anti-incumbency played its part raising the Congress’ numbers. However, the BJP will be in power in Gujarat, but this time it will have to deal with a stronger opposition.
Anti-Incumbency And Democracy
Did BJP really win the hearts of Gujarat? I will say no, else it would have won more than 150 seats. I believe that there is some dissatisfaction among the people of Gujarat, which is now clear before us and from which the rest of India was blinded, for the past five years.
Winning a state election without a face is not good for a democracy. Votes which came in because of Modi aren’t going to lead the state to its previous pace of growth and development. It needs a leader. We have already seen that puppet leaders are no good to either the party or the people. That’s why the people of Gujarat voted for a change.
However, as I mentioned in my previous post,the divide in the Congress and its allies, and the delay in finding a unified approach, led to it losing ground. If only the key people could have campaigned on the right issues a bit earlier, the world would perhaps have woken up to a different news today.
‘No’ To Caste Politics
I think the main reason why the Congress will be in the opposition, even after the anti-incumbency and people’s distrust, is because of age-old caste politics. This factor may have not lost all its importance, but I believe that it has weakened as a key factor. Gujarat simply showed door to leaders who were still trying to fool people on caste agenda. It would have welcomed the Congress, if it would have come up with right issues.
Impact On The 2019 Elections
Now, this result is in favour of the BJP, but it still has answered many questions. No one can fool the people or distract them from real issues by simply keeping them busy with linking their Aadhar cards to banks and all. Just picking up some random financial figures, from some organisations and trying to fool people that something good is happening won’t work either. India is democratic, and will be in every sense.
Now, if law-makers do get this fact, they will remain seated in power for another five years, or else again, they will have to walk through the same path that they did from 2004 to 2014.
Modi should understand that the people gave him power to be a superhuman, and fulfill all their expectations. They have risked a lot to bring a party stained with the communal tag, to power. They risked it for something bigger, more than just figures from the world bank,or some other random statistics. All the statistics don’t play a role in the betterment of the day-to-day life of common people, out of which only 1.5% people pay taxes.
Unemployment issues, healthcare services, the situation of farmers, corruption, etc. are more or less are still in the same condition as before. So, this result is a reminder, and a warning to the BJP and Narendra Modi that India is not blind. Everyone is watching and janta maaf nahi karegi (the people won’t forgive).