Ideology what facts don’t support rahul gandhi’s analysis of opposition politics and voter behaviour

Ideology what facts don’t support rahul gandhi’s analysis of opposition politics and voter behaviour

Rahul Gandhi’s assertion that only Congress and not regional parties can lead the ideological fight against BJP and RSS flies in the face of their comparative track record in recent elections. Since its three-state victories in the Hindi heartland in 2018, Congress has lost successive head-to-head electoral contests with BJP. In the same period, regional parties like TMC, DMK, AAP and BJD have checked further advances by BJP. Congress, meanwhile, stands exposed as the weak plank in opposition unity efforts after its failure to tap anti-incumbency against BJP in Assam, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur. Neither could it retake Kerala from CPM.

GOP, ironically, has had better success playing second fiddle to JMM in Jharkhand, DMK in Tamil Nadu and Shiv Sena-NCP in Maharashtra. Instructively, Congress wringing too many seats from RJD boomeranged in Bihar. Consequently, regional parties no longer consider Congress their spearhead. None of these parties is obsessing overtly with ideology, as Rahul would want them to. They are betting on welfare policies, organisational strength and popular connect.

TMC, for instance, ran a hard-fought campaign slotting BJP as an outsider to Bengal and harping on Mamata’s welfare record. AAP is hard-selling its Delhi model of service delivery and preaching patriotism and middle class virtues against BJP’s politics. Naveen Patnaik has held off BJP in Odisha solely on administrative improvements. True, personality cults, nepotism and indiscipline are a weakness for most regional parties that BJP is poised to exploit sooner than later. Nonetheless they are still better off than Congress, which doesn’t have enough workers in most states to even organise a flash strike against inflation, forget carrying a long-haul ideological message to voters.

Rahul’s obsession with ideology isn’t shared by voters either. The Lokniti 2019 post-poll survey revealed that less than 1% of respondents listed Hindutva and various communal themes as the most important political issue for them while voting (economy and good governance were cited the most). With its weak organisational presence and finite resources, Congress will be wasting time and effort if it operates by Rahul’s “ideology” thesis. BJP’s adeptness at filling political vacuums, identifying under-represented castes, wooing talents from other parties and keeping netas on their toes is a lesson for both Congress and regional parties. Lazy diatribes on ideology – in a country where just 5% of citizens file income tax returns and crores more could do with a leg up via better governance – just isn’t good oppositional politics.