(Image source from: BJP-led NDA to return as single largest party this elections})
With only 2 more days left for the big electoral battle to kick off, the opinion polls are auguring the return of Narendra Modi led BJP into power. Not just that, predictions are that the BJP will emerge as the single largest party with 214 seats in the 16th Lok Sabha, it's best performance so far. The NDA, in total, is expected to cinch 259 seats, just 13 less than the halfway mark of 272 in Lok Sabha.
According to the national pre-poll survey, while the BJP is all set to bag a record number of seats this election, the Congress, on the other hand, is poised to face its worst electoral defeat since its inception. Rahul Gandhi's Congress is expected to win just 104, its worst performance to date. The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) it expected to get a mere 123 seats, 108 seats less than 2009.
Under the leadership of Modi, the BJP is expected to make major gains in Uttar Pradesh where it might bag 53 of the 80 seats in offer — a momentous gain of 43 seats since the last elections.
Experts credit the rise of BJP to its disciplined organizational structure, which exceeds that of the Congress. Armed with good chief ministers, an ever-increasing set of empowered cadres and an aggressive leader leading from the front, it's little surprise that the NDA government under Modi is set to become a reality now.
The overthrow didn't happen overnight, nevertheless. For more than a year now, BJP has been painstakingly planning, sorting internal feuds, framing strategic alliances, upping the ante against Congress and winnowing the weak spots that could have affected the party's performance this poll. The party ensured that Modi's campaign speeches clearly evaded contentious issues like the 2002 Gujarat riots and the Ram Janmabhoomi movement.
The media too has been incremental in building the Modi hype. The sensational expansion of the media post the 2009 polls have hugely helped Modi. But whether media hype would translate into public consent remains to be seen yet.
Modi was smart enough to figure out that India doesn't want a new face, but a new idea. He caught the the right nerve, particularly of the youth, and ensured that his support base extended to all sections of the society, young and old, rich and poor alike.
Using social media as his weapon, he captured the imaginations of the country's youth, inspiring them with energy and a passion for something new and gently nudging their zeal from cricket to politics.
“Modi is a pugnacious campaigner and people the raw aggression. When there is a contest people like combativeness," said columnist Swapan Dasgupta.
"There are two aspects of Modi -- one is campaigner Modi and the other governance Modi. The first Modi is ruthless on his competitors and the second one is a master in governance. In this campaign, the open invocation to primordial sentiments of the Hindus have not been used. The figures in the survey indicate that Modi's inclusiveness is all-pervading," he said. We don't deny that, either!
AW: Suchorita Choudhury
