Karnataka election results : a litmus test for both Modi and Rahul’s popularity

On 12th May, the much hyped Karnataka elections will finally come to an end in the evening with the results coming out on 15th. The way, excessive and uncontrolled money, muscle and other traditional ways of enticing the state’s electorates are into play , it seems the role of the bodies regulating n controlling elections has indeed been for name sake.

The election of Karnataka reminds us very much about the recently held Gujarat election where the Indian prime minister Narendra Modi and the opposition leader and PM in imaginary waiting Rahul Gandhi had verbal, vociferous and acrimonious battle of words finally leading to the BJP victory, though with a lesser margin and Congress gaining better as compared to the previous elections.

But what was significant for BJP in Gujarat election despite lessening its seats, was it continued to rule for the fifth five year term and abrubtly killed anti incumbency which in any case always affects a ruling party. This unambiguously speaks of the fact that while Rahul’s political dynamism did worked in Gujarat but despite his best efforts he and his team could not kill Modi’s popularity in his home turf. In Karnataka however the situation is just topsy tervy as this time here the Congress is in the ruling and the centrally ruled BJP is in an offensive mode with prime minister Modi amd Amit Shah including about 19 central ministers and chief ministers of three states Raman Singh, Shivraj Couhan and Yogi Adityanath, leaving no stone unturned to ensure that the ruling Congress is crushed out of power by all means.

While Rahul Gandhi and the sitting chief minister Sidharamaiah are trying their best castigating Narendra Modi and his policies by holding more than 21 public meetings n several road shows the ruling party at the centre, BJP led NDA seems to be in advantageous position keeping in view their vast network of ministers, chief ministers, money, muscle and other form of electoral influences that are necessary to win an election.

Moreover, the anti incumbency factor and increasing tactical spread of saffron polarisation is also a key factor that’s going in favour of the Saffron party. The Karnataka election campaigning has this time witnessed a direct verbal duel and fight between PM Modi and Rahul Gandhi on various pivotal issues including the foreign origin of Sonia Gandhi.

The former prime minister Dr. Manmohan Singh has in a press conference strongly criticized prime minister Narendra Modi for stooping so law thus insulting the office of the prime minister. He castigated the BJP led NDA government and prime minister Modi for misguiding and misleading the youth of the country of creating 2 crore jobs every year and said that its for the first time that a prime minister has stooped so low to entice the voters of a state to attain political power.

He held the NDA government and its leader solely responsible for the agrarian mess in Karnataka and the country and said that the government of BJP has completely failed on the agrarian and employment fronts including infaltion. Karnataka election this time has gained tremendous momentum after the Prime minister and his entire team of central ministers coming into the election campaigning fully prepared leaving no stone unturned to exploit the anti incumbency factor which usually remains intact against any government.

The way Rahul has been extremely energetic, mobile, vociferous and firey, prime minister Modi too came one to one in answering and countering Rahul Gandhi’s accusations. The social networking sites especially the twitter handles of both the leaders are quite active helping mediamen make stories out of every tweet of PM Narendra Modi and Rahul Gandhi.

After closely analysing the election one can conveniently come to the conclusion that while Congress president Rahul Gandhi n to an extent ailing Sonia Gandhi had been vociferously quite active in the Congress campaining, they really lacked the team of central leaders and ex ministers including CMs to equate the powerful crowd of the BJP central ministers, all the national office bearers and chief ministers like Yogi Adityanath, Raman Singh and Shiv Raj Chouhan etc giving full time and energy to the BJP campaign in Karnataka.

However there is no doubt that Rahul Gandh’s meetings and his dynamic knack as a true fighter against communalism has generated tremendous amount of confidence amongst the right thinking people, secularists, the minorities and the educated classes of the state but it remains to be seen as to how much it really works.

Karnataka had majorly been the traditional stronghold of Congress but saffronisation is steadily and expeditiously sweeping in this state as well with BJP having been in power earlier n trying hard this time as well. Moreover the rallies of prime minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah also had tremendous amount of crowds sending a signal of danger to Congress Party .The major point that goes in favour of the saffron party is its incessant winning spree since 2014 in about 21 states of the country even making CPM loose in Tripura where it ruled for 25 protracted years.

Meanwhile in a whatsapp message becoming viral the BBC news service has given BJP a resounding one sided victory of 135 seats with Congress merely getting 35 seats and HD Deve Gowda 55 thus leaving no chance for the possibility of hung assembly as being widely predicted.