PM Modi shifts focus to Gujarat

The BJP has changed the nature and pace of electioneering. Many leaders — such as Mamata Banerjee, MK Stalin or Arvind Kejriwal — have adapted, and quickly. If others don’t, they risk fading into irrelevance

Fresh from a historic victory in Uttar Pradesh, and less than 24 hours after the elections in the state signalled that not only his popularity but also that his party’s rainbow Hindu social coalition was intact, Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi was back on the campaign trail on Friday. The PM held a grand roadshow in Gandhinagar as part of a two-day visit to his home state of Gujarat, which goes to the polls later this year.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Ahmedabad, March 11, 2022 (AFP)

The PM’s seemingly indefatigable energy after a gruelling poll season in five states underlines the change in the nature of electioneering. Setting aside debates on whether an endless cycle of elections is good for governance and the political health of the country — the PM has repeatedly said it isn’t, and asked for a synchronisation of state and national elections — the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s scorching campaign pace has made ground connect and cadre outreach a 24x7, year round affair. Gone are the days where parties could spend a majority of their term in hibernation, waking up a few months before polls. The BJP’s relentless focus on campaig-ning has meant that there is no space for the part-time politician, or for a leader or political party to lose focus and expect to do well in elections. The Opposition should take note.

Take Gujarat for example. The BJP virtually chan-ged its entire state government last year after feed-back from the ground that anti-incumbency was brewing. The party faces no real headwinds. The Congress, which mounted an unprecedented challenge in 2017 and posted its best results in a generation, is atrophying and far from being the well-oiled election juggernaut it needs to be to come back to power in a state that is home to not just PM Modi but also Union home minister Amit Shah, and where it has not won an election in almost 30 years. Yet, the BJP doesn’t appear to be taking it easy. PM Modi has already kicked off the poll campaign, and is likely to make several trips to the state in the next few months. In contrast, the principal challenger, the Congress, is yet to set its house in order. At a time when the BJP’s broad Hindu social coalition, its welfarism-driven Hindutva politics and PM Modi’s popularity is changing the grammar of politics, Opposition parties have to abandon old ideas about campaigning and strategy to match the intensity and discipline of the ruling party’s campaign. Many leaders — such as Mamata Banerjee, MK Stalin or Arvind Kejriwal — have adapted, and quickly. If others don’t, they risk fading into irrelevance.