The Congress came out with its poll manifesto on Tuesday and the big signal in it was that the party will mainly focus on the economy and rural distress to counter the BJP in the upcoming campaign. This will somewhat disturb the BJP’s pitch on national security issues and the achievements in the sphere of technology, which it has taken up in the last three to four weeks.
On Monday Prime Minster Narendra Modi held a rally in Wardha district of Vidarbha region in Maharashtra. An analysis done by Sakal Media group revealed that in his 33 minute speech, the Prime Minister devoted 11 minutes to attacking the opposition parties, 3 minutes to his chowkidaar narrative, 3 minutes to speaking on ASat mission of DRDO and ISRO, 4 minutes to targeting the Congress over Hindutva issues and only 1 minutes to poverty and farmer’s issues. Making it clear that there is sharp contrast between Modi’s narrative in 2014 campaign-- which was all about achhe din --and 2019 campaign which is about Hindutva and nationalism.
In his campaign speeches the Prime Minister is clearly devoting lesser priority to issues related to the economy, agriculture and rural distress and he is wanting people to think more about national security and the achievements of India’s scientists. There is no mention of the buzzword called “Achhe din” over hyped during 2014 polls!
Political analysts feel that this is happening mainly because of two reasons, firstly the economic hit delivered to the rural farm sector because of demonetisation is way beyond what was originally imagined in scale and size. The BJP does not quite know how to deal with it now and secondly the alliances shaping up in large states like Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra have added to the BJP’s worries. Nobody in the BJP imagined that Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samajwadi party could forge a seat sharing alliance in UP for Lok Sabha polls.
Many political observers feel that in addition to the anti-incumbency factor the UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is facing, the SP-BSP alliance may be delivering a death blow to the NDA in Uttar Pradesh. This is the reason PM is seen brining in very new subjects like national security and technological achievements to the fore and avoiding talking about demonetisation or other factors that hurt the rural economy very badly.
In the past few days the Congress party has suddenly realised that the distress felt in rural areas is something they can highlight if they want it to resonate among voters. There is a clear shift in the narrative by the Congress party. The manifesto talks only on economic issues and makes promises to target poverty and unemployment, two of the biggest issues sensed by the rural sector currently. On these issues the BJP clearly is on the back-foot and is seen diverting the narrative to Hindutva or National Security.
Since 2014 elections the Lok Sabha polls are being fought on media and social media platforms more than just on the field. This means the issues in the public mind space keep changing every few days. The Congress party’s attempt is to push the so called emotional issues out of public mind space and bring in economic issues into the agenda. The BJP finds itself uncomfortable on that turf, the Congress will keep pushing this agenda till the polls because it’s a big task for the BJP to convince the rural voters that acche din promised in 2014 have really been delivered.