The fanfare that marked PM Modi’s filing of nominations in Varanasi was only to be expected; yet, there is reason for the Opposition to take special note of the mass frenzy that marked the road show the PM held in that city. The fact that the leaderships of the entire NDA allies were present to urge the PM on was a clear demonstration of unity in the ruling alliance. The show also reinforced the stature of the PM and swept aside the perceptions about a likely change of PM if the NDA got one more chance.
Getting a few lakhs of people around for a road show is not necessarily a proof of a candidate’s success. It rather demonstrates the money and muscle power of the party that organises it. Votes are different. At the same time, the mood of the people who milled around the PM’s cavalcade showed that he retains his support in a constituency he cared very little about in the past five years. Notable is also the fact that the Congress chose not to field party general secretary Priyanka Vadra in Varanasi even as she had expressed a willingness to enter the fray. Instead, the choice fell on a weak candidate who had fetched no more than 75,000 votes in the 2014 polls; and that too under the Congress banner.
Varanasi is not India. The fight at the national level will be tight and it is unclear who will emerge victorious. No wave is in evidence across the country. Yet, the PM has gone on record to state, in Varanasi, that for the first time in the country there is a ‘pro-incumbency’ wave – against the normal anti-incumbency mood. Modi having reached up to almost every state in the course of the present campaign should know. What is clear to the trained eye now is that the Modi Magic of 2014 is missing. Balakot gave the PM a last-minute push in his approval ratings after a period of dullness. The pension schemes for farmers and the unorganised labour and such other welfare measures too might have had a positive impact as the nation headed for the polls. The negatives like Demonetisation and Rafale were there too to exercise public minds.
The Congress party clearly is well-past the Congress-mukht Bharat days after having revived its fortunes by winning key Hindi-belt states in the five-state assembly polls and is putting up a good show led by Rahul Gandhi on the campaign front. The suspense thus continues.