Why Do BJP and Narendra Modi Keep Winning? Why Do Congress and Rahul Gandhi Keep Losing?

Why do BJP and Narendra Modi keep winning? Why do Congress and Rahul Gandhi keep losing?: Yogendra Yadav, National Convenor, Bharat Jodo Abhiyan, a former political analyst & psephologist, answers in an interview to Karan Thapar .......................................... After the National Democratic Alliance's seemingly unbelievable victory in Bihar and the Mahagathbandhan's shattering defeat there are two questions that are crying out for an analytical answer - why do the BJP and Narendra Modi keep winning? Why do Congress and Rahul Gandhi keep losing? These are not easy questions to answer but, equally, they are important questions to ask and we need to attempt to understand them. They are also the key questions posed in this interview with Yogendra Yadav, one of India's well-known political analysts and a former psephologist who is today the National Convenor of the Bharat Jodo Abhiyan. Mr. Yadav has spoken not just with understanding and analytical detail but with great insight and wisdom. Rather than attempt to paraphrase or precis what he's said, I will leave you to hear the interview for yourself. He's provided extremely interesting and analytically detailed answers to the two issues that frame this interview. To help you, I will give you a list of the main questions put to him. 1) Let me start with the question that many people will be asking this morning: why do the BJP and Narendra Modi keep winning? After eleven and a half years in power one would expect that the country would want a change. That anti-incumbency and tiredness with the same party would set in. But instead its swept to a phenomenonal victory. Hence, my question why do the BJP and Modi keep winning? 2) In June 2024 when he returned for a third term as Prime Minister, Narendra Modi was perceived to be diminished. He was dependent on allies. The BJP, it was thought, was running out of steam. But after the sweeping victories it’s won in Haryana, Maharashtra, Delhi and now Bihar would you accept that impression no longer holds? Modi seems as strong as he’s ever been. 3) Is there something about Narendra Modi that has caught the imagination of the country which political analysts and the opposition don’t understand and don’t know how to counter or respond to? 4) In contrast, why does Congress keep losing? It believed it had a winning hand in Haryana, Maharashtra and Bihar but lost on all three occasions. What keeps going wrong for Congress? 5) Let me ask you the opposite of the question I asked about Narendra Modi. Is there something about Rahul Gandhi that puts the nation off, that makes it difficult for him to be accepted as a leader people want to vote to power? 6) Let me put it like this. 65% of India is under the age of 35, yet they seem to prefer a 75-year old Narendra Modi over a 55-year old Rahul Gandhi. Ordinarily, shouldn’t it be the other way round? 7) Will the shattering defeat in Bihar raise disturbing questions about Congress? For instance, will potential allies see it as a liability? Will they question its ability to lead the INDIA alliance? 8) In the first half of next year elections will be held in Kerala, Assam, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal. Will the demoralization that will inevitably have set in put Congress on the back foot whilst confidence could hugely encourage the BJP? 9) Assam and Kerala are two states where Congress is the main opposition party and it should be poised to win because the incumbent governments have been in office for ten years. But if it fails what sort of future will Congress face? 10) In Britain the Liberal Party was one of two ruling parties in the 19th and early 20th centuries but after the collapse of the Lloyd George government in 1922 the Liberals were reduced to a rump and never recovered. Is that the fate that awaits Congress? 11) Let me ask you the reverse. Congress governments ruled India from 1947 till 1977 without a break. That was thirty years of unbroken Congress rule. Are we now witnessing something similar with the BJP in the saddle? 12) My last question. Both at the Centre and in many states we don’t have a sizeable opposition. That’s certainly true of Bihar. How worrying for Indian democracy is this? Join The Wire's Youtube Membership and get exclusive content, member-only emojis, live interaction with The Wire's founders, editors and reporters and much more. Memberships to The Wire Crew start at Rs 89/month. @thewirenews