The Saffron tide

Elections are an evergreen feature of India. The ballot outcome, especially for the past few years, has become less complicated and relatively more predictable. The saffron tide that politically emerged in the 1980s and covered vast swathes of the country in 2014 has been a constant since 2019. Recent state elections, from the west to the south, have depicted that the religio-fundamentalist wave is now an indispensable reality not only at the national level but also in at least 20 of the 29 states.

In a first in many years, Left has been erased from the power corridors. Mamata Banerjee's 15-year long rule has been halted. The victory of the BJP in Assam further bolstered the candidature of Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma. It proved that a multifaceted election strategy, effective campaigning and proper execution can turn the tide against odds.

From the south, the new party of actor-turned-politician C Joseph Vijay, popularly known as Thalapathy, has proved that groundwork, connecting with the masses and focusing on localised issues can snatch victory even from the stalwarts. The all-populist DMK and the AIADMK are rapidly turning into footnotes. A glance at the ballot trend in the 80 million-strong Tamil Nadu shows that Stalin is the fourth sitting CM to lose an Assembly election. The 73-year old lost his Kolathur stronghold to TVK's VS Babu, and his DMK party came a distant second.

The biggest surprise was BJP's debut win in West Bengal. Modi's men were leading in 156 of the 293 seats, and had won 48 others. The coastal southern Union territory of Puducherry was also grabbed by BJP; whereas Kerala with its secular identity went the Congress way, as the ruling Communists stood routed.

The moral of the story is clear: BJP is here to stay and rule. It is not only a story of the victory of the radicals but even more a story of the soaring defeat of an inept, visionless, frail, fragmented and imprudent opposition everywhere. Rahul Gandhi's Congress, with its eloquent secular credentials in an egalitarian India, is unfortunately a non-starter.