For the past few years, the Bharatiya Janata Party has seemed unassailable at various levels of governance. After the massive that mandate the BJP and Narendra Modi received in the last Loksabha elections in 2014, the party under the leadership of the Prime Minister and Party President Amit Shah appeared to have acquired a Midas touch. The party swept various state legislative polls and even in states where there was no clear majority, the BJP managed to form governments. The UP elections seemed to cement this appearance of invincibility. Recently however, things appear slightly altered.
The municipal elections of Nanded-Waghala in Maharashtra were recently concluded and the Congress won 67 out of the 81 seats. This in itself is not significant since the area is something of a Congress stronghold. Rather than the Congress performance, it is BJP's dismal performance that could be noteworthy here.
The BJP managed only 4 seats and its ally the Shiv Sena managed just one. Even this may not be significant since the BJP continues to make gains elsewhere in Maharashtra. There are other signs that BJP may not be as secure or as confident as it seemed until recently.
In recent times, the Congress has shown some maturity and admitted at least some of its mistakes. In a recent speech by Rahul Gandhi at Berkeley, which, unusually for him received positive reviews, these were admitted as such. In his speech Rahul Gandhi admitted to how dynasty rule exists in India and how the Congress had become arrogant towards the latter part of the UPA’s rule.
The response to Gandhi’s Berkley speech and other such instances from the BJP appears to have been disproportionately fierce. Arun Jaitley claimed to be ‘embarrased’, Smriti Irani reacted angrily and many other BJP leaders expressed anger and scorn.Was this only because Gandhi's Berkeley speech was unusually well received? Or are there other insecurities at work?
There is certainly widespread dissatisfaction with what people view as incompetence and mismanagement that has resulted in the recent economic downturn. The pains of demonetisation and its ultimate futility, the hurried, haphazard implementation of GST and persistent unemployment have meant people are angry and dissatisfied.
At upcoming polls, BJP has had some of their biggest leaders campaigning hard. The Uttar Pradesh CM was seen campaigning in seemingly small, insignificant constituencies in Gujarat recently – whereas earlier it was thought that the BJP could do nothing wrong and would effortlessly sweep the polls in the home state of the PM.
Today, so many battles are fought, won and lost on social media that this platform has become a significant indicator of public sentiment. WhatsApp forwards lauding the PM, his party and their work and schemes have reduced significantly. Jokes lampooning the government, its working and its schemes have increased.
On Facebook and Twitter, trolling from BJP supporters has lost much of its sting and vitriol recently. The party and its supporters appear to have lost a lot of steam and much of their bluster recently. A lot of ‘news’ is revealing itself to be fake and manipulated and people appear to be losing patience with being treated as though they are unthinking fools.
It is too early to say that the tide has turned – either in favor of one or against another party. That there has been a general shift in public perception and mood however, seems clear.
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