The final election tally of 2024 has come
NDA :- 293 seats
India:- 234 seats
There are 5 big takeaway from this election.
1:- Taking Electorate for Granted: BJP may yet again form the government with the help of its allies but it is far away from repeating its 2019 performance of 303 seats and almost light years away from its 370 seats target. Since the time BJP formed the government the party has projected Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the panacea for all ills. There is no doubt that Narendra Modi is one of the most popular Prime Minister the country has ever seen but certainly one individual cannot solve all the problems, does not matter how powerful one is.
When he became the Prime Minister for the first time he called himself Head Servant “प्रधान सेवक” or someone who has come to serve. In 2019 he called himself as Watchman “चौकीदार” but in 2024 he was called god’s incarnation “अवतार”. This was an indication that BJP and the Prime Minster has started to take the electorate lightly. In a democracy one must never take people for granted.
2:- Deep Root of Democracy: The BJP’s call of 400 seats was an attempt by the party to enthuse its cadres and voters to come out in big numbers to vote for the party, but the opposition was able to convince the voters that the BJP wanted 400 seats to alter the constitution. This fact was helped by the comments made by some BJP members like Mr Ananthkumar Hegde and Mr Arun Govil.
Our democracy may not be perfect but it has made deep roots in the conscience of the people and any attempt to alter the basic tenants of the constitution is not liked by the public. We have seen this in the past also, as to how Indira Gandhi paid politically when she declared emergency in the country.
3:- Power of United Opposition: This election was about the survival of the opposition parties as the central government after giving the clarion call of Riddance from Congress ” कांग्रेस-मुक्त भारत ” went after every opposition leader worth its salt, be it Mamta Banerjee, Arvind Kejriwal, Tejaswini Yadav, Hemant Soren. The fear of being subsumed by the BJP made every opposition leader forget their ideological differences and come together to give themselves fighting chance against the BJP. Once arch enemies Congress and AAP fought together.
This type of alliance was unthinkable even some months ago but the constant targeting of the opposition leaders through investigating agencies like ED, CBI and Income Tax brought opposition leaders together and the BJP which used to benefit from split in opposition votes was not able to do it this time.
4:- Unemployment: There was palpable discontent amongst the youth with the prevailing unemployment scenario in the country. When Mr Modi first formed the government in 2014 he promised 2 crore jobs every year but that proved to be just a slogan and the unemployment percentage in the country was its highest under the Modi regime.
Also the Agnipath scheme that was introduced by the government in 2022 proved highly unpopular amongst the youth. Youth especially those from rural background always had the inclination to join the armed forces and for that they used to prepare for several years, suddenly found themselves bereft of this option. There was bound to be repercussions.
5:- Inflation: The government thought that it has managed to control inflation well as it was never a matter of debate in national media, but the government erred in understanding that the common man was suffering due to high price of essential goods and products like Vegetables and Food- Grains. Also the high price of Petrol, Diesel and LPG cylinder were hurting the common man. The assumption that the free 5kg Food Grain is enough to make the common man happy was not entirely correct and this proved to be the government’s undoing.
