As the Lok Sabha polling process is on alongside the campaigning, there is little yet to gauge the voter mood. Prime Minister Modi’s claim about a repeat of the Modi wave being in evidence across the country must be taken with a pinch of salt. To be fair, there is no perceptible anti-incumbency sentiment at play; nor is there a pro-Modi or pro-BJP wave. This is because the Modi government’s performance gets only average marks. Tempers ran high only in Andhra Pradesh, resulting in two killings, and this is because of the high-voltage fight between the ruling Telugu Desam and a buoyant YSR Congress.
The mood in the Congress-led UPA camp is not very upbeat either. One reason is the failure on the part of the grand old party to seal alliances with regional entities in several states, most notably in Delhi. The Congress leadership blames the AAP and chief minister Arvind Kejriwal of not warming up to the UPA, while AAP is putting the blame on the Congress. For the AAP, this though is a tricky situation. The regional party came into being by raising the charge of the Congress being an extremely corrupt entity. The allegation, with substance, went beyond the sphere of former CM Sheila Dikshit and spanned other serious allegations of corruption under the UPA II led by then PM Manmohan Singh. While Rahul Gandhi raises the Rafale issue to some good effect, the voters are aware it came after Bofors in which both his mother and father were allegedly involved. This is reason why Modi seems to be getting away with the allegations surrounding the Rafale deal, even as a fellow Gujarati in the name of Anil Ambani is involved – not covertly, but openly as part of a recorded deal.
The Congress, and by extension the UPA, might gain steam if Priyanka Gandhi is fielded from Varanasi against PM Modi this time, as is proposed. While Arvind Kejriwal could not make any dent in Varanasi in 2014, the powerful Brahmin support for Priyanka could give Modi a run for his money. The reverberations of such a high-stakes fight will be felt across India and the campaign scene can dramatically turn surcharged. At the same time, if Priyanka Gandhi wins Varanasi against the PM, the Congress politics is bound to shift base from Rahul Gandhi to his sister with more ease; which might not be to the liking of both Sonia Gandhi and Rahul. For now, it’s campaigning sans punch.