Congress dug its own grave in Gujarat

Though Narendra Modi’s single-handed, no-holds-barred, high-voltage 300,000km, 25-state, 45-day campaign throughout the country brought about the complete rout of the Congress in its former bastion, Sonia Gandhi’s party dug its own grave by refusing to pick up the gauntlet and digging its own grave.

If the absence of a charismatic leader blessed with a gift of the gab like Modi dampened the spirit of even traditional Congress voters, increase in the prices of essential commodities day after day, exodus of Congress leaders to the BJP and failure of the party to reach out to the masses, all just before the April 30 polls, compelled the electors to press the lotus button.

Apart from the BJP’s so-called presidential-style campaigning for one man (Modi), the credit for the saffron party’s record performance also goes to its state-level leaders who remained united throughout the poll season unlike the Congress stalwarts who refused to bury the hatchet even while distributing tickets for the crucial ballot-box battle. No less useful in the BJP’s record performance — the Congress had won 24 of 26 seats in 1984 — was the role of the 100,000-volunteer Citizens for Accountable Governance (CAG), a youth group comprising legal eagles, IITians, management experts and other whiz kids, that had powered Modi’s hectic poll campaign.

A large number of people from Gujarat’s six million Muslims also seems to have given a thumbs down to the Congress after the BJP’s minority cell members went around explaining how Modi had successfully fielded community leaders in elections to municipalities and panchayats with some 250 of them now being powerful lawmakers.

Machiavellian Modi did not give any communal speeches but, at the same time, subtly and surely soft-pedalled Hindutva by not seeing red when Vishwa Hindu Parishad rabble-rouser instigated his frenetic fans in Bhavanagar to throw out Muslims from Hindu localities.

Finally, the gullible voters were also bowled over by BJP leaders’ constant talk about Modi’s ‘good governance’ for 13 years and his own promise of benefits to Gujaratis if a leader from their community became the prime minister.

mahesh@khaleejtimes.com