Swarn Kishore Singh

Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his speech from the ramparts of the Red Fort on our 77th Independence Day laid emphasis on fight against corruption, nepotism and appeasement and singled out Congress by using a phrase, ‘rule of the family, by the family, for the family’. Congress ruled the nation exactly with this unwritten convention till the wild card entry of PM Modi in 2014.

Congress and Nehru-Gandhi family are in shambles today because the Lutyens’ Delhi ecosystem has kept them cocooned by courtiers and sycophants who keep them unaware of ground realities. This family still stays in inertia with some eventual token replacement of faces of courtiers. India had rejected this family way back in 2014 and even the verdict of the recent elections is no stamp of approval of this family and their futile adventurism.

There were 96.8 crore registered voters in 2024 general elections and out of which around 64.2 crore votes were casted. People of India have spoken through their votes and thankfully their message this time has not been tainted with vague and fanciful accusations of tampering of Electronic Voting Machines. As a matter of fact, these elections are one of the most fair elections in recent times.

Bhartiya Janta Party had contested 441 seats and won 240 of them and on the other hand Congress could manage to contest only 328 from its overtly aggressive alliance partners and consequently couldn’t even reach three figure mark in the final tally.

The mandate of 2024 general elections isn’t all hunky dory for BJP but it isn’t very encouraging for Congress either; in fact this verdict is very disappointing for Congress considering the anti-incumbency of two consecutive terms against BJP. The manner in which Congress has been celebrating the verdict of elections as arrival of Rahul Gandhi as the leader is preposterously ridiculous.

Either Congress is delusional or they don’t wish to properly analyze the results to avoid triggering of a proper introspection. If the basis of celebrations is the arithmetic improvement from its earlier score of 52, then God save Congress from its political wisdom and forethought.

Let us do some maths now; the most glaring aspect of the Lok Sabha election results is that Congress could win just 25 seats out of 225 seats of Hindi belt; and 26 if we add Gujarat i.e. 26 from 251 seats. And if this is arrival of Rahul Gandhi as a leader and this defines his acceptance across India, then Congress is oblivious of truth and unmindful of the ground realities.

Congress drew blank in Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh,  Jammu & Kashmir,Madhya Pradesh and Uttarakhand; and won just one seat each in major states like Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and West Bengal. From the northeast part of India, Congress won five seats only and even the southern states didn’t accept Rahul Gandhi that too when this part of India was the focal point of his ambitious Bharat Jodo Yatra.

BJP received 36.6% of the total votes in these elections, which is just a menial loss of percentage point i.e. 0.8 from 37.4 in 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Congress has received an upswing of just 1.7% improving it from 19.5% to 21.2% which is nowhere near to be called a good position. On the other hand the regional outfits have been more effective and the little raise in the vote percentage for Congress could be attributed to the votes polled in their favour by virtue of their alliance partners.

Dog whistling OBCs for their disproportionate share in bureaucracy, terrorizing people belonging to Scheduled Castes for abrogation of their reservations and agitating ordinary populace of India by spreading the rhetoric of abrogation of our constitution only; Congress used every possible weapon in their armoury to bog BJP down; nonetheless the upward mobility of Congress had its ceiling in 99.

The window dressing Congress had its extreme in these elections and to my opinion they can’t go beyond this in absence of some fundamental ideological realignments and comprehensive organizational upheavals.

Only front on which Congress outscored BJP in these elections is the way they controlled the narrative; Congress not only fixed the narrative but they ran it aggressively and ensured it reached the core voters. Although this was majorly based on stealth but Congress & INDI alliance partners ensured the narrative wrapped in political messaging reaches the core voters.

The people of India have spoken and when people speak, political parties and politicians should listen. A nonpartisan analysis of the results of Lok Sabha elections of 2024 would be; NDA has been jolted down and warned by people of India to mend their ways, ensure the core ideology isn’t compromised and image of party be protected from getting disfigured by reckless entry of tainted turncoats.

Congress and other alliance partners of INDI alliance have been given enough seats to perform as a strengthened opposition for better performance of democracy and for positive criticism of the government as and when necessary. This verdict better not be misconstrued by Congress and other allies of INDI alliance to tame some lofty ideas of acceptance as a credible replacement of BJP led NDA government.

This verdict has ostensibly brought for Congress more strength and energy to counter the government and it also gives a chance to Congress to restructure itself organizationally and realign itself ideologically too to denominate the aspirations of the people of India.

While Congress will be trying to do something to topple BJP out of power, ostensibly BJP too wont be twiddling its thumb. If BJP has been voted to power for third time consecutively, something which happened in India for the first time since Nehru years, it can be safely inferred that BJP is surely doing something right and Congress is not up to the mark. BJP had an anti-incumbency of two complete terms and still Congress celebrates 99; just celebrating mediocrity!

Congress should shun tuning the dulcet tones for some specific communities and rather make a plan which will pull people across the country and communities towards them. Every political party stands tall on the hard work of their ground level workers and ground level workers can’t sustain and survive opposition for 15 years, therefore the oath taking ceremony of PM Modi & his cabinet has stamped the decimation of Congress in 2029 elections. Congress needs to do something pathbreaking to undo that.

After the faux celebrations in Congress offices are over, they should drop the charade and find an erudite data analyst who could do this slick analysis for them. Reminisce is fine to keep the spirits high but running of main opposition party of India with self boasting loquacious courtesans only is too risky for their future. Congress should better get off the shenanigans, initiate Swachhta Abhiyan in their organizational set up and work on serious idealogical realignments or worst is waiting for them.

(The author is an advocate and a political observer)