Opinion Scarecrow politics

The losers of Verdict 2014 are so scattered and decimated that it should come as a surprise that a common thread binds them in their predicament. The SP, BSP, JD(U), RJD, CPM and, to some extent, the AAP had enlisted themselves for an overarching “Or Else Modi” campaign in this election. Their returns from this general election come packaged as a cautionary tale against taking so-called votebanks for granted.

They ran a lazy campaign that sought to do nothing more than scare prospective voters with the prospect of a Modi victory. They fooled themselves into believing that they needed to do no more than nominate themselves as the only forces in his way, with no need to have a positive platform or an agenda for governance, or to articulate a progressive politics to counter the BJP’s pitch. They presumed that all they needed was the comfort of a votebank to lure freefloating voters and take them to victory in a multi-cornered contest. It was, as it now clearly turns out, a false comfort. The SP’s ploy to abdicate its responsibility as the party of governance to play on insecurities after the killings in Muzaffarnagar has fully, and deservedly, failed. The BSP struggled to open its account. The Left is a yet more reduced force in Parliament. The RJD and JD(U)’s respective challenges came to practically naught. The AAP did less well than expected.

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The success of the AIADMK in Tamil Nadu, Trinamool Congress in West Bengal and BJD in Odisha shows that to be in the fray meaningfully, a party has to run on a positive agenda of what it seeks to offer. The strategy of expecting voters to be bound by scary scenarios alone is past its use-by date. The rise of Modi is obviously, and understandably, unsettling for large sections of the population. It would be unfortunate if political parties which presume to represent them failed to reflect their concerns in constructive politics.