The Lok Sabha result is unusual. It makes the winners feel like losers. And losers like winners.
Let us explain. The BJP was not only expecting a simple majority of 272 seats. It had set its mind on what it called ‘400 paar’. So, when it won only 240, it did appear as if it had lost. Though you must consider that its tally was far more than that of the second-largest group, the Congress Party, which only managed to win 99 seats. But BJP was downcast because it not only fell far short of its own 400-mark but even the half-way mark of 272 by 32 seats.
As for the Congress Party, for the third successive election it failed to come anywhere near the half-way mark. Even after adding its tally of 44, 52 and 99 in the last three elections, the total seats won are a good 45 short of what the BJP has won in the 2024 election. So, you may well ask, why is Rahul Gandhi going around as if he has won the election.
Unless, of course, he had set himself a modest goal of denying the BJP a majority. He can justifiably claim success in this limited mission. Yet, he was not able to prevent Modi from becoming prime minister for the third successive time. This is not a small feat, last achieved by the first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru in the 1962 election.
So let us get this straight. If Rahul Gandhi still needs another analogy to put the outcome of the 2024 poll in perspective, he ought to consider this one from the world of cricket. Assume Virat Kohli were to publicly commit himself to score three centuries on the trot in as many matches. But after two successive centuries, he falls short of the three-figure score in the third match by ten or so runs. Can he be dubbed a loser, a no-good batsman? The answer is clear.
The ‘400-paar’ slogan harmed the BJP campaign. Because it allowed the Congress to spread the lie that Modi wanted 400 seats so that he can dump the Constitution and stop reservations for the scheduled castes and tribes and even for the Other Backward Castes. The propaganda misled a huge section of Dalits in Uttar Pradesh, who voted for the Congress and Samajwadi party, even deserting Mayawati’s BSP.
Again, as a direct fall-out of the ‘400-paar’ goal, the 20-percent Muslims got consolidated against the BJP, determined to stop Modi from becoming PM. Mid-way through the campaign, when the BJP realized that the Congress propaganda about it abandoning the Constitution was finding traction, it attempted damage-control. Modi’s statement that the Congress wanted to abandon SC-ST and OBC reservations and instead give them to Muslims was meant to counter the Opposition propaganda about the rejection of the Constitution.
However, in actual effect, the anti-Muslim rhetoric only firmed up the determination of Muslims to vote against the BJP. Answering the exhortation of the Maulvis and mullahs and other community leaders, Muslims voted like one man to defeat BJP. In UP, they did not waste their vote by voting for weak Muslim candidates fielded by BSP or other groups.