With a campaign that appears to move and shift every day, this Lok Sabha election is defying the script. In June, when Narendra Modi was officially handed charge of the BJP’s 2014 campaign, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had walked out of his 17-year-old alliance with the NDA, saying he could not compromise on his secular principles. At that time, the clash between the two leaders, as framed by Kumar, seemed to set the template of the 2014 electoral confrontation. Yet, nine months later, the theme of the Nitish-Modi clash would appear to have shifted, for now at least, to governance. Two days after Modi brandished data at a rally in Purnea on the “Gujarat model”, Kumar hit back with statistics on growth and social inclusion in Bihar.
In June last year, Kumar’s departure was the first big blow to the Modi-led BJP, and many more were expected, along the same lines. Modi was then considered a big gamble by the BJP, and an inflaming choice — while his presence clearly energised the party’s Hindutva base and those persuaded by his model of governance, it was perceived to alienate those who pointed to the communal violence in 2002, his refusal to express regret for it or to directly address the sensitivities and concerns of minorities. The contest for Lok Sabha 2014, it was said, would play out along the single stark faultline of communalism versus secularism. But this campaign has unfolded in untidier and less predictable ways.
