Nationally dominant, with a strategy that clicks
The HinduThe results of the four-State election, declared on Sunday, provide a wealth of compelling evidence that might help us answer two of the most important questions relating to Indian politics. In Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, the welfare plank rested with the incumbent Congress, and both Congress Chief Ministers, i.e., Bhupesh Baghel and Ashok Gehlot, respectively, commanded broad popular satisfaction in this respect. The state of the Opposition and the Congress The charismatic leadership of Mr. Modi, who took a significant political risk fronting all three elections, remains crucial in melding this expanded support base of the party and smoothening out divisions among them through evoking a populist personality-based appeal. Mr. Modi’s personal popularity has been perhaps a decisive factor in ensuring that no incumbent Congress Chief Minister of a large State has come back to power in the entirety of the Modi era. The resulting atrophy of the State organisations, however, also means that the party struggles to convert latent satisfaction with the respective Congress Chief Ministers into actual votes for the Congress party on election day.