Countdown for the BJP has begun
On April 6, BJP leader Amit Shah in his sheer political p o m p o s i t y compared the entire Opposition to cats and dogs. And it virtually rained “cats & dogs” electorally, completely wiping off the BJP in various bypolls.
Two prominent questions have started dominating the discussion forums. First, is it going to be Narendra Modi vs the rest in 2019? Second, is Opposition unity vital to defeat the BJP in 2019? But there is another important question that needs to be answered, and that is will the BJP’s anti- people, antifarmer, anti- women and anti- youth policies and betrayal of their own electoral promises lead to its defeat in the people’s court in 2019?
One just needs to look at the results of the byelections held since 2014 to understand that the countdown for the BJP began much earlier than was anticipated by political pundits. In total, there have been 27 Lok Sabha bypolls, out of which the BJP lost 22, while the Congress won four with thumping majority in states where there was a direct contest between these two. Even the usual logic that state bypolls are won by the party in power did not work for the BJP as they lost despite being in government in various states, including Rajasthan, UP, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh. In fact, the BJP is facing double incumbency in these states — non- performance by the Modi government at the Centre and non- performance of the respective state governments. The reason for these defeats is that people have started realising that “all that glitters is not gold” when it comes to PM Modi and his event management style of politics.
Modi vs the rest in 2019 is merely a catchy hypothetical question created by the media to showcase Mr Modi as the Hercules of the electoral battlefield.
The NDA consists of the BJP and 29 parties, and if you factor in state alliances then it is BJP + 47 parties against the UPA, which broadly consists of the Congress+ 17 parties. Thus it is NDA vs Team UPA contest, which has a canvass much bigger than Mr Modi’s personality.
As the soul of India is bleeding now, the time has come for all the likeminded parties to come together, which they have broadly for the sake of protecting the nation from the politics of hate.
So yes, Opposition unity is imperative to defeat the NDA, that has started treating India like a private limited company, cheating its shareholders and depriving them of dividends. The writing on the wall is clear that with the Congress as the fulcrum, the arithmetic of Opposition unity combined with the chemistry of voters will completely evaporate the BJP in 2019.
The writer is a Supreme Court lawyer and national media panellist, Indian National Congress