There is no alternative to Narendra Modi

The Lok Sabha election of 2019 has become presidential. The campaign theme of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and the opposition are both Modi-centric.  

The BJP’s election slogan is “phir ek bar Modi sarkar (Modi once again) ”.The opposition has reinforced this thrust by launching a unifocal attack on the Prime Minister’s persona, and by trying to posit the Mahagathbandhan (grand alliance) as an anti-Modi front. The grand alliance has so far come a cropper, damaging the opposition plank and derailing its credibility. 

The election has been turned into a referendum on Modi; The absence of any towering pan-Indian personality in the opposition ranks has added to the sheen and glamour of the Teflon Modi imagery. 

The NDA has come up as a cohesive election machinery. The opposition, conversely, is at each other’s throat in most states. Their antipathy for Modi has not helped them sink their differences. 

The much-touted idea of Mahagathbandhan has fallen flat and Prime Minister Narendra Modi appears invincible as the second phase of polling comes to an end. 

Some disgruntled party leaders like Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie, who have been strategising with the Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, wanted one joint opposition candidate against the NDA in all the 543 constituencies.

The so-called grand alliance is solely focused on stopping Modi at all costs. The template for this is nearly like the 1971 Grand Alliance pitched against Indira Gandhi. The then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s famous campaign lines were, “I want to remove poverty; they want to remove me”.

Little under five decades later, a similar situation has emerged in the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha election — the only difference being that the protagonist of the new grand alliance now is Indira Gandhi’s grandson. 

But it has failed to take off mainly because of the decline of the Congress as a central force and the reluctance of other opposition parties to accept Rahul Gandhi as their leader. 

In the past one year, Rahul had approached nearly all regional leaders mooting this idea. After the big show of opposition unity in Bengaluru in June 2018, the impression had gained ground that the Congress was stooping to conquer. 

The euphoria, however, was shortlived. Ego clashes in the opposition ranks came to the surface in West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra and three Congress-ruled states in the north. 

For the Mahagathbandhan, each state presented a conflicting picture, as each party wanted to maximise their gain and expand at the expense of the Congress. 

Senior opposition leaders like N Chandrababu Naidu in Andhra, Mamata Banerjee in West Bengal, Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav in UP were unwilling to play second fiddle to the Congress president. 

In Andhra, the attempt failed because of the humiliating defeat of the Congress-TDP alliance in Telangana in the December Assembly elections.

Leaders like Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao in Telangana, Naveen Patnaik in Orissa and Jagmohan Reddy of YSR Congress in Andhra, were keener on a federal front, which is yet to take shape. 

In Uttar Pradesh, which sends the largest contingent of MPs to the Lok Sabha, Mayawati and Akhilesh formed a tie-up without so much as accommodating the Congress.  

This irritated the Congress and the party decided to stage a counteroffensive by projecting Priyanka Vadra and launching a desperate campaign in at least two dozen constituencies, putting up formidable candidates.

The Congress was able to work out respectable partnerships only in Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Bihar. 

In Tamil Nadu and Bihar, it is the junior partner while in Maharashtra, it is at the mercy of Sharad Pawar’s NCP, which has a history of hobnobbing with the BJP. 

The Congress and the CPM attempted a tie-up in West Bengal but failed. The same seems to be the case in Haryana, Punjab and Delhi, where its talks with the AAP are still hazy. 

Rahul Gandhi’s decision to also contest from Wayanad in Kerala, a minority- dominated, backward constituency in Kerala, has spoiled his chemistry with the Left. Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has accused him of fighting the Left, “after trying to stop Modi all these years”. 

BSP supremo Mayawati is piqued with Rahul Gandhi for failing to accommodate BSP in MP and Chhattisgarh in the December 2018 Assembly election.  

The break down of negotiations with BSP on seat sharing in these states, sealed any chance of adjustment in UP in the Lok Sabha poll. 

In the end, there are at least a dozen contestants against Narendra Modi’s candidates in almost all the 543 Lok Sabha constituencies. Talk about post-poll adjustments are unconvincing. Voters want to know the alternative to Modi. 

The Congress strategy from the beginning was flawed. In their personal attacks, they only helped to project a larger than life image for the prime minister. Every time the opposition spoke of stopping Modi without offering a convincing governance agenda, it has looked power hungry.  

This has helped invest Modi with the “underdog image”, gaining voters’ sympathy.  

National security and the Balakot air strikes proved the defining moments. Modi stood for taking India forward, protecting it from Pak-sponsored terror and forces hostile to India.  

As against this, the Congress manifesto, which offered repeal of AFSPA, the sedition law and expressed a pro-separatist stand on Jammu and Kashmir, has convinced the voter that Modi stood for a strong and united India. 

Author is former Editor, Organiser