Brand Modi takes a dent

Despite the BJP’s stunning win in Gujarat, its defeats in Delhi civic and Himachal Assembly polls have laid bare the limitation of Brand Modi outside his home state. The AAP in Delhi and Congress in Himachal have shown that BJP’s electoral juggernaut, with Modi as its rallying force, cannot overcome anti-incumbency if countered with a well-crafted political campaign.

As the PM admitted himself in his speech in the national capital, he, and not Gujarat CM Bhupendra Patel, was the face of the party’s Gujarat campaign. “I had said that Bhupendra will break Narendra’s record, and for that, Narendra will work relentlessly with all his heart and mind,” Modi said, underlining the sway of his charisma in Gujarat. Patel rarely campaigned outside Ahmedabad.

Also Read | BJP sweeps Gujarat, cedes Himachal Pradesh to Congress

In Delhi’s civic polls, the BJP urged people to vote for Modi. In Himachal, Modi himself asked people not to bother about who the BJP candidate was and that their vote for “kamal” will be a vote for Modi.

The BJP, increasingly dependent on Brand Modi, deployed the PM to address 31 poll rallies in Gujarat and nine in Himachal.

An enduring image of the Himachal polls is a viral clip of the PM calling former party MP Kirpal Parmar, asking him not to contest from the Fatehpur seat as an independent after the party denied him a ticket.

Parmar replied that he deeply respected Modi, but the phone call had come too late. Parmar garnered only 2,800 votes from the seat, but the phone call made it an easy win for the Congress’s Bhawani Singh Pathania.

The Congress’ sharp campaign, based on inflation, the Agniveer scheme and the promise to restore the old pension scheme, trumped Modi’s charisma in Himachal. In refusing to attack Modi and sidestepping issues such as the Uniform Civil Code and Article 370, the Congress brought into focus livelihood issues. Neither could Modi’s popularity overcome the challenge BJP’s rebels posed or the infighting between the party camps. The three independents who won in Himachal are all BJP rebels.

At the party headquarters on Thursday evening, as drumbeats tried to mask the subdued celebrations ahead of Modi’s visit to the office, in Shimla, Jai Ram Thakur was making his way to the governor’s office to accept defeat. A senior party leader sought to pass the onus on the state leadership for the Himachal defeat.

“There was advice coming in from several quarters, but they seemed confident, and so our interference was limited,” he said.