In Nutshell: How this election season panned out

A peep into the themes of this poll season shows parties and leaders prepare and tweak their strategy to hit the bulls’ eye to win over voters’ hearts at any cost.

New Delhi: The last vote before the next year’s Lok Sabha election will be cast in Telangana on Thursday evening. Dubbed the semifinals before the royale finale, this edition of Assembly polls saw some outrightly outrageous remarks and test doses for the 2024 campaign.

Panauti: Plummeting to new lows is what our top leaders promise every election. PM Narendra Modi led the ignominious verbal war calling Rahul Gandhi ‘moorkhon ka sardar’ (king of fools). Home Minister Amit Shah called Congress and Gandhi family ‘rahu’ and ‘ketu’. Rahul returned the gift calling Modi a ‘panauti’ (bad omen). Kamal Nath dismissed ally Akhilesh Yadav as ‘Akhilesh-Vakhilesh’. With Lok Sabha polls nearing, the acrimonious exchanges spell ‘bad omen’ for the electorate.

Guarantees: Since Karnataka polls, guarantees have been raining during elections. Parties are competing to outdo rivals.  If Congress invented it, BJP is taking it forward with ‘Modi Guarantees’. Women and farmers are the main focus, as parties offer competing sops by money in their hands. In Rajasthan, BJP promises an LPG cylinder at Rs 450 while Congress is offering at Rs 400. There is an MSP war too!

Hindutva: One may say religion should be kept out of politics. BJP is banking on ‘Ram Mandir’ while promising free travel to Ayodhya, much for a party that dismissed social security promises as ‘revdis’ earlier. BJP calls Congress terrorist supporters in apparent reference to a minority community. In Madhya Pradesh, Congress promised to complete the construction of Shri Ram forest road and restart the plan of constructing a Sita Mata Temple in Sri Lanka. Rajasthan saw Congress promising to procure cow dung. Number of Muslim candidates fielded by prominent parties were dismal.

Caste:  Congress played the Caste Census card from day one, prompting the BJP to spell out that it is not against the exercise. BJP also sought to minimise damage by announcing that it will choose a backward class leader as Chief Minister in Telangana, where it does not seem to stand a chance to form the government. BJP is also now moving ahead with sub-categorisation of Dalits. Congress also sought to play the ‘tribal’ card with Rahul seeking to corner BJP saying it was called the ‘vanvasis’ instead of ‘adivasis’.

ED: Come election season, the ED is dusting out cases from its closet. It claimed that Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel received Rs 508 crore illegally. An accused, whose statement ED used to make the claim, recanted his statement in court. Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot’s son Vaibhav got a summons while state president Govind Dotasra’s residence was searched. Vivek Venkataswamy, who left BJP to be a Congress candidate in Telangana, saw his premises searched. In some relief, Rajasthan High Court quashed ED summons against a Congress candidate asking him to appear before it just days ahead of polling. 

Manipur: Mizoram elections saw the ethnic violence in neighbouring Manipur getting limelight. Modi, who the BJP celebrates as their chief campaigner, cancelled his only appearance in the state after CM Zoramthanga announced he will not share dais with the Prime Minister. Congress upped the ante over Modi not visiting Manipur while finding time to watch India-Australia cricket final in Ahmedabad.

High Command: For some leaders, this edition of elections was a fight for survival against their respective party High Commands. Ashok Gehlot finds a place in this list from Congress while BJP has at least two in Vasundhara Raje and Shivraj Singh Chouhan. Raman Singh in Chhattisgarh too clawed back into the game at the end.