BJP in, but out
A decimated BJP will continue at the helm of affairs. Narendra Modi, set to become the prime minister of India the third time, is in the league of Jawaharlal Nehru but with a contested political legacy on his side. The 2024 elections will long be remembered for being too humble as the people chose to vote in all consciousness, and the denial of a third successive landslide win for the Hindu-generic party has consolidated the secular credentials of India. The BJP was restricted to a mere 240 seats, dumping its passion of crossing the supra-strategic 400 mark in the cameral. A defeat for the BJP in Varanasi, its fiefdom in Uttar Pradesh, and making inroads in the liberal and irreligious South speaks high of swinging trends in politics. Likewise, with the BJP ceding ground to Congress as it climbed the ladder from 52 seats in 2019 to win 99, and going on to foment a surprising proactive opposition bloc of 230 seats is all about the beauty of world’s largest democracy.
Modi will soon have to return to some deep introspection after cheering a moment of glory. With no muscles to amend the constitution and take a solo flight over issues of communalism and mythology, the prime minister warrants a nationalist policy. Modi’s NDA alliance with 293 seats in the 543-strong legislature will have a tough time to face at the hand of a rejuvenated opposition which wants to fight back on the very original fabric of India’s heterogeneous culture. The 2024 vote has, however, buried the myth of Hindutva taking roots in a billion-plus populace and at the same time put an end to the chauvinist mantra of Akhand Bharat. This is more of a victory of Indian egalitarianism over the myopic psyche of the RSS-BJP combine. Similarly, the fact that for the first time in 15 years, the BJP failed to sweep UP, won with a bleaker margin in many of the hotly contested constituencies across India, and could not carry the passion of idolising prehistoric notions, has set the ball rolling for an electoral change of heart in years to come.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 6th, 2024.
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