Elections 2019: Party Battleground

A lot has changed in the nation with regards to the political scenario since the 2014 General Elections. An era of the Gandhi Dynasty, where political parties other than Congress were side-lined, ended with the rising of Narendra Modi who conquered it all with outlandish election results. Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP), along with its allies, emerged victorious after securing the majority votes in 75% of Indian states in 2014. Now that the General Elections are coming closer, one question rules the discussion about it- Will BJP sustain the 2014 success?

In order to answer the above question, we need to understand the reason behind BJP’s last win. There could have been two reasons for the exponential growth of voters in support of the party, the first one being the loss of trust in Congress and the other one being Modi’s attractive personality. There was a series of scams like the Bofors Scam, 2G Spectrum Scam, Coalgate Scam, in which the members of the then ruling party Congress, were a part of. This resulted in scepticism by the supporters towards Congress as a credible government. Also, the unfamiliarity felt towards the then party leader of another descent and the unmindful character being displayed by the then president of the party, doesn’t help much.

Amidst the doubts surrounding the Indian National Congress, Narendra Modi, a man who started off as a mere tea vendor but led a state successfully towards growth, came into the spotlight. Modi made extremely ambitious promises like stop the fall of the rupee, bring back the black money from the banks overseas and fill every citizen’s account with fifteen lakh rupees and generating over one crore jobs. His excellent oratory convinced all despite of the apparently distant goals. He aroused hope in the doubtful audience and made them believe.

Fast forward to present, the prominent members of the BJP party like Smriti Irani, Vasundhra Raje, Sushma Swaraj, are involved in controversies. Even Narendra Modi has been recently accused of being responsible for the Rafale Scam. Also, the promises which guaranteed success for the party, are backlashing as they were not fulfilled. The rupee is still falling, black money is yet to be brought back and employment generation in 2016-17 was 4.16 lakhs only as compared to the one crore jobs promised.

This has resulted in the unsettling of the public and the fading of the very base on which BJP won the previous elections. Joining of rival parties like BSP (Bahujan Samaj Party) and SP Samajwadi Party), time to time verbal attacks from allies like Shiv Sena and more and more individuals like Hardik Patel contesting against BJP worsens the situation. However, the chances of winning are not nil. Certain policies like Gram Jyoti Yojana or the Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana by the BJP government did win the hearts of the poor, keeping aside its effectiveness. Also, the memory of the Congress period is still afresh in the minds of the voters (Thanks to the its mentioning in the parliament time and again by BJP members) which could be a factor in favour of its arch-rival.

One thing is undisputed- similar majority cannot be attained by BJP in the 2019 general elections but one can fairly say that it will be a close win and that there will be a good share of surprises on everyone’s part.

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Written by Dhruv Jain