A resounding victory in Karnataka has served as a timely morale-booster for the Indian National Congress, with the next general elections almost exactly a year away.
The grand old party must have breathed a sigh of relief after realising on May 13 (vote-counting day) that there would be no need to form any alliance to form the government this time and there was little scope for other parties to wrest power away from it, no matter what kind of post-poll alliances they might attempt to cobble up, thanks to the thumping majority – 136 out of 224 seats – with which it won the assembly elections in the southern Indian state.
With Karnataka being an important state, both in terms of political influence at the national level and contribution to the Indian economy, and Congress still struggling with leadership and organisational issues in its ranks, the party could not have asked for a better turning point towards resurgence in 2024.
There is no doubt that the Bharatiya Janata Party must be feeling deflated after such a devastating loss in a state that it was ruling since the fall of the Congress-JDS coalition government in July 2019. Karnataka was not only the BJP’s sole political fortress in the south, it has also for long been deemed the launch pad for the saffron party to make inroads into other southern states such as Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
However, as incredible as it may sound, this loss may turn out to be a good thing for the party in the long run – for many reasons
First and foremost, the Karnataka loss has offered some important lessons for the BJP. It showed that if the local party workers and leaders do not work hard enough on the ground to connect with the public over a sustained period of time, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s campaigns – no matter how intense, extensive and sincere – will not be enough to win elections. The loss also showed that the BJP needs to invest more in its state leadership and must do away with non-performing CMs in good time before assembly elections, as people are increasingly making their voting decisions based on local issues and performance at the state level.
Secondly, the loss has also conclusively dispelled the myth that an autocratic BJP has been undermining democratic institutions and processes in the country in a bid to push forward its Hindutva agenda. Authoritarian regimes do not let opposition parties win elections, and that too so convincingly. Nowhere in the world does that happen. Hence, the BJP will not need to fight any such notions either in the upcoming assembly elections this year or in the Lok Sabha elections in the next.
Barring The Emergency during 1975-77, India has always been a vibrant and exemplary democracy. The fact that an independent-minded and forward-looking judge such as Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud – who has been consistently passing landmark judgments, whether those be in favour of the government or against it – is so successful, celebrated and revered in this country, is proof enough.
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