Has BJP already won the 2024 General Elections?

Opinion

Image Source: thequint.com

If you’re a woke Indian citizen with a left ideology, the NDA- I regime (2014-2019) must have been a frustrating period for you. NDA won 336 seats in the Lok Sabha. We then saw the BJP government take the economy for a ride down south with demonetization. Businesses suffered and unemployment numbers peaked. The opposition also cried foul claiming corruption in the Rafale deal. 

Fast forward to 2019, NDA won 353 seats in the Lok Sabha. Well that doesn’t add up- does it?
Where’s the gap? Let’s discuss. 

Lack of opposition

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that there was no real opposition to the BJP in 2019. Tens of regional parties with conflicting ideologies creating a “Mahagathbandhan” isn’t a scalable model. There has to be something that ties them together- like the RSS for BJP. 

Congress is the only other party with a national presence- a party that has the resources and visibility to rally the opposition together against the mighty BJP. However, after all those loses in state elections and central elections- Congress is still fielding the Gandhi family as the party’s “Karta Dharta”. Self Goal. Senior leaders like Kapil Sibal are calling out the incompetency in leadership but there’s to no avail. 

No structure in argument

The opposition- be it the parties or the citizens- have been toiling hard to call out everything wrong that the BJP does. In fact, they call out everything that the BJP does. While this is acceptable and expected behaviour- the voter also expects some visibility on the alternative. Currently- the opposition’s USP to the voters is that they’re not BJP. We’ve seen it historically- that doesn’t work. 

After coming back to power in 2019- in a short span of time- BJP revoked article 370, passed the CAA/NRC bill, made amendments to the labour codes and introduced new farm bills. There were questions hurled at the government regarding the migrant crisis, their handling of the pandemic and the economy. While the merit of all these bills and issues can be debated, we know that there were several protests against most of them. 

However, nothing has changed from a voter’s perspective. We still don’t have an alternative party or ideology we can fallback on. 

BJP is continuing to win state elections. They’ve done exceptionally well in the bypolls as well (even after all the protests). If we want a party to have a fighting chance against the BJP in 2024, the change has to begin and begin soon. We cannot ride behind Kunal Kamra and Swara Bhaskar’s retweets and expect the change. Irrespective of our political inclination- we can all agree that India needs a face in the opposition- someone to counter the magnanimity of Narendra Modi’s personality. 

Do you think that’ll happen before 2024? Who are the possible candidates? Will there be an AAP x Delhi like disruption in the Lok Sabha as well? Let us know!

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