Opinion | Moditva’s Appeal is Intact Just Like Modi’s Mojo, But What About Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Casteism’?

After the 2024 Lok Sabha election, the Congress party took to describing Narendra Modi sarcastically as a “non-biological PM”. But the pejorative is suddenly looking like a prophecy. Especially now after Narendra Modi has pulled off a near-miraculous historic hat-trick in Haryana and spectacularly dwarfed the Congress in Jammu & Kashmir. It’s a feat of unearthly audacity.

Indeed, without exaggeration, the BJP was metaphorically on the ropes after the chastening 2024 Lok Sabha election result. Its first hundred days in office were marked by an unprecedented administrative tentativeness and ideological equivocation. In fact, some substantial policy decisions were rolled back. Many experts wondered if the reduced mandate had caused the BJP to question its own convictions.

Rahul Gandhi cockily answered in the affirmative by saying that the prime minister lost his confidence because voters had rejected “Moditva” and were turning to the Congress because it was the guarantor of constitutionalism and the guardian angel of the backward classes and castes.

Believing his own rhetoric, Rahul Gandhi predicted a rout for the BJP in Haryana and Jammu & Kashmir. The usual suspects in the Congress-suffused “ecosystem” also wrote the BJP off. And quite honestly so did some BJP bigwigs who promptly jumped ship.

But it now turns out that Modi remains a messiah for the masses, especially the needy. Dalits and the extreme backward castes (EBCs) have all returned to the BJP in Haryana. Even the Jats who were thought to have been permanently alienated from the BJP didn’t desert the party. The statistics speak for themselves.

The BJP won 21 out of 25 OBC-dominated seats, increasing its tally by 3 in the SC reserved seats and most crucially retaining 15 of the 30 seats in the Jat belt. In fact, in Haryana, the Congress only won 40 per cent of the seats it contested.

It’s not just Haryana that voted against the Congress but also Jammu and Kashmir. Here the Congress party’s strike rate was a dismal 15 per cent compared to the BJP’s 46 per cent.

The double loss undermines the Congress party’s narrative that relies heavily on perpetuating a caste-based affirmative action as an avenue for upward social mobility. Moreover, the rout also raises fresh doubts about whether the Congress can aspire to be an alternative to the BJP at the national level.

The result will also take the sting out of the Congress party’s campaign that Modi’s governance has underwhelmed. For the record, Haryana is the 11^th state where the BJP has returned to power, cementing its status as the natural party of governance. This is no mean feat considering the Congress hasn’t been re-elected in any state for at least a decade.

Of course, no analysis can be complete without a mention of the Sangh’s contribution. The RSS has tactfully let it be known how it has bailed out the BJP through 16000 meetings across 600 villages. It was said the RSS largely kept away from the Lok Sabha elections, upset by the BJP’s pre-general election bombast that it had what it takes to win on its own.

Looking ahead, if nothing else, the BJP enters the poll fray in Maharashtra and Delhi with its tail up.

Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18’s views.