BJP’s victories now make even less sense

For all the hype built by the embedded media predicting one more landslide for the BJP in Gujarat as well as in Himachal Pradesh, the final results of the Gujarat assembly elections do prove that Rahul Gandhi, anointed barely two days ago as the president of the Congress party has succeeded in denting the halo of Prime Minister Narendra Modi as an invincible Goliath.

Admittedly, the Congress did not succeed in defeating the BJP in Gujarat and ending its 22-year rule, widely believed by the political pundits to be the citadel of Narendrabhai and the laboratory of Hindutva. It also proved once more that all these ‘Chanakayas’ and Kautilyas do hardly any homework and simply take their cue from the powers that be, in this instance the pompous BJP president Amit Shah who boasted of getting 150 plus seats this time round.

Having said that, these results do surprise an honest analyst considerably not because the Congress performed well beyond expectations and predictions of Modi/Shah duo and their fans. What surprises one is how BJP succeeded in Gujarat despite an all-round upsurge against the party.

Some results were showing BJP winning 14 out of 16 seats around the textile town of Surat. If this were the case, then what do we make of the BJP motorcycle rally just two days before the campaign, which ended when the crowd collected on both sides of the road pulled at the saffron caps and bandanas of these BJP rallyists and flung them in the air before angrily stamping upon them?

What does one make of what seemed like the entire population of Surat town walking behind the Congress candidate when he went to file his nomination?

Soon after GST lakhs of traders took out a procession protesting against Modi and lamenting Modi’s bid to starve them first with demonetisation and then with GST. Their bill books bore the print: “Hamari bhool, kamal ka phool (Our mistake Lotus flower—BJP’s election symbol).

They say Modi’s popularity continues to soar. But in his rally in Bharuch, large number of chairs were unoccupied. The reporter turned the camera around for everyone to see that while the Prime Minister was delivering his speech there were hardly many people to hear him and the few who were there were seen walking out of the venue well before the speech ended. This, the reporter pointed out, was when he was scheduled to address at 9 am and eventually came at 1 pm, waiting for the crowd to collect. And the reporter disclosed that this was not an isolated instance. The Prime Minister’s rallies were thinly attended. Why else did he resort to the gimmick of flying a specially commissioned seaplane, except to attract an awestruck crowd?

At another place Amit Shah had to call of his public meeting because before he arrived at the venue, people started a ruckus, even shouting “Maro, maro” against the BJP candidate and breaking chairs laid out for the meeting.

Compare this with Himachal Pradesh. Was there even one report of any outpouring of people’s anger, of Virbhadra or Rahul Gandhi having to cancel a single meeting for fear of public outcry, despite the BJP’s continuous campaign painting Virbhadra Singh as corrupt?

Ofcourse nobody would remind Amit Shah or Modi what they thought about Pandit Sukh Ram whose son they inducted into the party a few days before the announcement of the elections. Yet the results showed a huge wave against the Congress party, notwithstanding the fact that BJP’s chief ministerial candidate and two times former chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal lost the elections.

Do these results inspire any confidence? Not in me and the reason is the past position and present conduct of the chief election commissioner A K Joti, a former chairman of the Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation (GSPC) who had awarded the contract for drilling petrol wells in Gujarat to Geo Global Resources of Mauritius who did precious little but were paid ₹20,000 Crore for their “services.”

Now its parent company based in USA, also runs EVM Microchip manufacturing company and its owners are NRIs Sanghi and Murthy. They supply EVMs to us. Ordinarily, such a person should not have headed a post of a referee.

The Gujarat and Himachal assembly election results do not inspire enough confidence, notwithstanding tremendous sincere and fruitful effort put in by Rahul Gandhi. It’s a lesson for the Opposition for the future. Just the mobilisation of people and impressing the voter isn’t enough. They have to guard against the EVM and ensure a fair and objective Election Commission.