Narendra Modi has successfully led the nation for a decade. He has made himself the most important face in the minds of a large section of the people and the media. People believed that in his third election too, he would be back with a majority, surpassing the previous numbers of 2014 and 2019. The “400 par” mantra was chanted over and over. Perhaps it started to ring true to his followers and the media as the PM crisscrossed the nation, addressing rallies everyday, declaring himself to be no ordinary biologically-born mortal. After all, who was there in the Opposition that was comparable to his calibre? Which party was as wealthy, as well structured, and as well advertised? The accounts of the major Opposition party were frozen and a couple of Opposition state chief ministers were arrested. The post-poll exit polls gave the NDA a comfortable majority. Some even predicted it would touch the 400 mark. Among the moderates and the Opposition, it created an air of despondency, concerns over the continuance of authoritarianism and the spread of communalism.
But the results have been breathtaking. The BJP is the largest party still, but it has won just 240 seats, falling quite short of the 272 mark. The Opposition INDIA block has got 235, with Congress alone touching 99. It has been an impressive performance against the odds. Modi will still become Prime Minister with the help of his alliance partners N Chandrababu Naidu of the Telugu Desam Party, now the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, and Nitish Kumar of the JDU from Bihar. But it would appear that the one-party dominance is over. Both Naidu and Kumar are smart politicians and will no doubt demand their pound of flesh.
How did this come about? It was very clearly the determination of the Opposition INDIA alliance, in particular that of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi who — once disqualified as an MP for a speech and then reinstated after the Supreme Court’s intervention — faced an uphill task. But his two Bharat Jodo Yatras that took him across the country endeared him to the masses and forged a connection.
In this journey, the role played by M K Stalin, the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, is immense. Stalin has always shown his unflinching faith in Rahul Gandhi. In fact, during the last election in 2019, he even proposed Gandhi’s name as the prime ministerial candidate. This time too, Stalin showed great maturity by sticking with the Opposition agenda of saving democracy, secularism and the Constitution — the main themes of the Congress manifesto.
Stalin proved to be a great ally to the INDIA bloc by enthusing them to stand together to halt the BJP juggernaut. His public election campaigns attracted incredible crowds where he spoke like a national leader, emphasising on inclusive politics with his slogan “Narpathum namathe, naadum namathe (All the 40 is ours, the nation too ours)”. Stalin graciously accommodated his alliance partners in distributing seats. The DMK contested just 21 seats. It gave 10 seats to the Congress and the rest to the Left and Dalit parties.
And it was a clean sweep. Its principal opponent, the AIADMK — that came out of the BJP alliance thanks to K Annamalai, the BJP state president who made derogatory remarks against their mentor C N Annadurai and also Jayalalithaa — stood alone, joined by DMDK, the actor Vijayakanth’s party. But since they had no agenda except attacking the DMK, they drew a blank in this election. However, they have a substantial vote base and cannot be written off. The BJP, which projected itself as the future ruler of Tamil Nadu, drew a blank. Its state party president Annamalai lost by more than a lakh votes in Coimbatore. But it must be said that the BJP increased its vote share from three per cent to 10 per cent. That is something to be watched out for by the Dravidian parties who have been a dominant force in Tamil Nadu since 1967.
In 2022, stressing the importance of cooperative federalism, Rahul Gandhi made an emphatic statement in Parliament, directed at the BJP benches: “You will never ever be able to rule over Tamil Nadu in your entire life!” Modi did his best to win the hearts of the Tamils but failed because of his incomprehension of the Tamil ethos. He miscalculated the reach of his Hindutva agenda, imagining it would persuade voters in Tamil Nadu. The Tamils are believers culturally, but historically secular. There is an interesting myth connected to the deity Sri Ranganatha of Srirangam temple that says that there was a Muslim woman who was a devotee of the Lord. She was the deity’s favourite and there is a shrine in the temple devoted to her. A daily ritual is followed when the deity goes to the shrine to meet his “Thulukka Nachiyar’ (Muslim lady). The prasadam offered to her is roti and sabzi.
Vaasanthi is a Tamil writer and journalist
