Prashant Kishor, a poll strategist, presented a warning to the Congress and INDIA opposition alliance less than two weeks before the general election. The warning was a red alert. He issued a warning about the Bharatiya Janata Party, which is led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, performing better than expected in terms of seats and vote share across six states in the eastern and southern regions of the country.
Mr. Kishor, who is responsible for the triumphs of the Congress, the Trinamool, and the Aam Aadmi Party over the BJP, which is the party of the Prime Minister, reaffirmed his earlier warnings and stated that the party that is presently in power is not invincible. He stated that the BJP is not unbeatable.
He reminded the opposition, on the other hand, that it is running out of opportunities to halt the BJP juggernaut from advancing with its momentum. In addition to the pandemic, he mentioned a number of opportunities that were not taken advantage of between the years 2016 and that of 2018. “If you drop catches, the batter will score a century… especially if he is a good batter,” he stated to the news agency PTI. “This is one of the most important things you can do.” “This is especially true,” he stated on the occasion.
Prashant Kishor’s Warning For Opposition
A big accomplishment will be accomplished by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Telangana, which will either take the first or second place positions. The fact that they are likely to be the greatest in Odisha cannot be denied. Mr. Kishor added, “In addition, you would be surprised… in my opinion, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is going to be the most prominent party in Bengal.” He made this statement while pointing out the states in which the party has been unsuccessful in the most recent Assembly election.
According to his assertions, the party has the potential to obtain a vote percentage in the state of Tamil Nadu that is in the double digits. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 3.6% of the vote in the Lok Sabha election that took place in 2019, while it only received 2.6% of the vote in the Assembly election that took place in 2021. This is to put this into perspective.
There have been times in the past when the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has struggled to acquire traction in various parts of the country. The reason for this is because the extreme nationalist mindset of the BJP has not exactly resonated with voters on a sufficient level. In the years 2014 and 2019, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) were only able to secure seven and thirty of the total 164 seats in the states of Telangana, Odisha, Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, and Kerala, respectively.
There was one exception to this rule in 2019, when the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 25 of the 28 seats in the state of Karnataka. As a result of the substantial victory that the Congress party gained in the Assembly election that was held the year before, many people believe that the party has also suffered a loss in this region. This is because the Congress party won the election in the previous year.
Over the course of the next five years, however, the unrelenting outreach and hands-on approach that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been pursuing in these regions has the potential to return (relatively) enormous dividends. This will boost the party’s profile for forthcoming elections, even if it does not result in success for the Lok Sabha election in 2024. This is because the party will have a stronger profile.
By the year 2026, elections will be held in three of these six states: Bengal, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu. These three states account for three of the total.
According to Mr. Kishor, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has made a “major and visible push” to expand its influence in these states. This is something that has been done. He made reference to the fact that the Prime Minister and Home Minister Amit Shah, who are the two most powerful members of the party, had visited with the party on multiple occasions.
At this point, Mr. Modi has traveled to Tamil Nadu a total of six times, and he is still counting.
Take into consideration the number of travels that the Prime Minister has made to Tamil Nadu over the course of the previous five years in comparison to the number of trips that Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi, or any other opposition leader has made to states that are currently experiencing a state of violence.
BJP’s Hindi Heartland Advantage
Mr. Kishor claimed that the opposition has not been successful in making a similar push in the northern and western states, which are considered to be the Hindi heartland. In these regions, there are 239 seats that are up for election, and the BJP is the dominating party.
Over three hundred and seventy seats, including those held by allies of the National Democratic Alliance, have been required by Mr. Modi in order to guarantee that the opposition will not be able to challenge his BJP for a third consecutive term.
A significant portion of this would originate from the states that are considered to be in the heartland. These states include Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana, Bihar, and Madhya Pradesh, in addition to Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, and Uttarakhand.
There are 149 seats available in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Bihar, which are located in the heart of the heartland. The BJP won 107 seats in 2019, while the Congress won three seats, with eight of those seats being won by the Congress’s present allies.
In the previous year, the Congress party suffered defeats in the Assembly elections in three states: Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, and Madhya Pradesh. In the previous year, the Congress party also suffered defeats in three additional states: Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, and Gujarat.
And Mr. Kishor brought this problem to everyone’s attention in his remarks.
Although you are now traveling Manipur and Meghalaya, your fight is taking place in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Madhya Pradesh. In comments that were seen as a jab at Mr. Gandhi and his “Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra,” which traveled through the states in the north-eastern region of India this year, Mr. Kishor addressed the question, “Then how will you get success?”
At the Lok Sabha level, Manipur and Meghalaya have a combined total of four seats.
“370 Unlikely For BJP But…”
In general, Mr. Kishor agreed that it is highly improbable that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will achieve its lofty objective. However, he claimed that the Prime Minister’s party would still register an easy victory, supported by the outcomes of heartland strongholds.
The ruling party of India “will feel the heat only if the opposition, especially the Congress, can ensure it loses around 100 seats in the north and west” . However, he stated to the PTI that this “is not going to happen.”
“By and large, the BJP will be able to hold its ground in these regions,” according to his forecast.
Mr. Kishor has minimized the alternative proposed by the opposition, which is the INDIA bloc. He has noted that this solution is neither a “desirable nor effective” choice because roughly 350 seats are already being contested by individuals fighting against one other.
His statement that the most important thing is to make sure that every opposition party has a distinct “narrative, face, and agenda”
There is some good news for those who are opposed to the government.
In response to a suggestion that a third consecutive victory would mean that the BJP would extend its already long-standing dominance of politics, Mr. Kishor dismissed the idea. “This is a big illusion…” he concluded by saying, “As long as the opposition acts.”
Prashant Kishor On Rahul Gandhi
Mr. Kishor issued a warning over Mr. Gandhi’s apparent reluctance to run for office from the Congress stronghold of Amethi in Uttar Pradesh, which was won by Smriti Irani of the BJP in 2019. He stated, “If you do not win in UP, Bihar, and Madhya Pradesh, there is no benefit if you win from Wayanad.”
Despite the fact that Mr. Gandhi is scheduled to defend his Lok Sabha seat from Wayanad in Kerala, it appears that he will not be returning to Amethi. “Strategically… I can say letting Amethi go will only send a wrong message,” Mr Kishor stated to reporters.
In addition, there are concerns regarding Raebareli, which was won by Sonia Gandhi in 2019, which is the second UP stronghold that the Congress party holds over. This is the year when Mrs. Gandhi has started serving in the Rajya Sabha.
To add insult to injury, the Congress has not yet selected a new candidate for this seat.