Achi news desk-
As the Lok Sabha elections approach, the contending political parties continue to increase their pace as they woo voters to their side. Given their vast pool of resources, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is expected to have an advantage when it comes to campaigning across the country, though it cannot spend beyond the spending cap set by the Election Commission of India. In sharp contrast, the BJP’s main challenger, though weakened since its heyday, the Indian National Congress (INC) has been hit by the Income Tax department’s recent move to freeze the party’s main bank accounts after it raised a tax demand of Rs 210 crore for 2018-19 . Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh admitted in Guwahati on April 11 that the party was struggling to support its candidates due to cash crunch, blaming its situation on the central government.
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However, it is not the money alone that will sway the voters even though the goods do act as an incentive. The issues are also important and if the just-revealed Lokniti-CSDS 2024 pre-survey is anything to go by, unemployment and inflation are in as great a position as generally believed. The pre-survey by the Center for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS) found that for 62 percent of respondents across different demographics, including villages, towns and cities, securing employment has become increasingly challenging; The sentiment was greater among men than among women. The finding stands in sharp contradiction to the center’s claim that everything is unfounded in the employment sector. However, the Center can take some solace in the finding that 57 percent of respondents believe that the Center and the states are responsible for this state of affairs; 21 percent held the center accountable. Also, as expected, an overwhelming majority of voters expressed a severe impact on their finances, with 71% citing an increase in commodity prices. The exposé conjures up images of top BJP guns, including then-Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the run-up to the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, heaping scorn on the then Congress-led UPA government on price hikes and promising to hold the price line. If they voted for power, but two terms down the line, they seem to be looking at the same barrel.
What should also put the BJP on the back foot is that 55% of respondents believe that corruption has increased in the last five years, with 25% attributing it to the Center and 16% to the states. The BJP, it should be noted, is shouting hoarse to itself while telling the electorate how the opposition parties, especially the Congress, are steeped in corruption and looting the country while its mission is to develop the country. The party must then answer how corruption could have increased, if at all, as such a perception could very well translate into votes against the party. Another stick with which the BJP has beaten the opposition is the issue of nepotism. Here too, the findings of the survey cannot come as a happy statement for the saffron party. According to this, there was more or less equal support for the view that the BJP is less nepotistic compared to the Congress and that the BJP is as nepotistic as the Congress. Despite all this, the strengthening of Hindu identity and the BJP’s clear identification with the Ram Mandir issue may come to its aid in the end.
