K V SEETHARAMAIAH
Much hype created by exit poll results is punctured. Exit poll results are wrong in terms of assessment of seats but not in terms of victory given to NDA. Seats projected will never be exactly the same when exact poll comes out. Nearness to accuracy is weighed. But this time the actual result has baffled the survey agencies. I.N.D.I.A. bloc cannot brim with total satisfaction with the increase in its tally. Because, the total number of seats bagged by I.N.D.I.A. bloc is not equal to the total number of seats bagged by BJP alone. And Congress is not a position to flex its muscles against BJP. No agency gave victory to I.N.D.I.A bloc. To that extent, the exit poll results have come true. Congress has failed to attain three digits. BJP fell short of 32 seats to touch the magic figure. Rude shock from Uttar Pradesh has been offset by pleasant surprise from Orissa and Jharkhand. Congress has received drubbing from Karnataka and BRS from Telangana. Maharashtra gave a slip to BJP. Outstanding issues at present are one nation and one election and UCC (Uniform Civil Code). Modi’s hands are crippled to ensure the avowed objective if Chandra Babu Naidu and Nitish Kumar do not fall in line. Naidu and Kumar are now king makers. It is not unexpected that they demand their pound of flesh. Modi had shown magnanimity to include the NDA partners to the government in first and second terms even though there was no need to include them. Now the inclusion of non-BJP is inevitable. JDU and TDP are turncoat parties seen from the past experience. BJP is obliged to concede the demands of JDU and TDP. Keeping the interest of the nation in mind, JDU and TDP should not back out BJP from forming the parties. They should also be part of the government. Outside support is not the best guarantee for stability of the government. AICC President Mallikarjuna Kharge’s assessment that I.N.D.I.A. would be given 295 seats has been found to be hollow. For a simple majority I.N.D.I.A. needs 38 seats. Knowing the weakness of Nitish Kumar and Chandrababu Naidu, the opposition parties may not remain silent spectators at the fractured verdict but will try to wean them away to their side. They start to lure them to prevent NDA from forming the government. If they do not fall prey to the design of the opposition parties, with JDU and TDP remaining as part of NDA, good governance can be given. Now BJP is not in a position to implement only its agenda. Coalition era out of necessity is back. Coalition government would become collision government if adjustability among the parties with different ideologies is lacked. Snap poll cannot be ruled out if the constituents of NDA fail to act as cohesive unit. Many times, elections have proved that good deeds have failed to bring back the ruling party to power and foul-mouthed people with no good performance when they were part of ruling parties have not been kept away. To mention few examples, the Sandeshkhali incidents did not make any dent on TMC. Mamata Banerjee was sure that Modi would not come back to power and she had expressed confidence that I.N.D.I.A. would get the seats between 295 to 315. She has failed to understand that India as a whole has never favoured TMC. She has been repeatedly demonstrating her frog-in-well attitude. She is a loose cannon too. Just before 2019 Lok Sabha elections, she had termed Modi as ‘expiry’ PM. She had vowed to commit suicide in case Modi became PM in 2019. It means she was very ‘sure’ of Modi’s defeat in 2019 itself. She had also said “Modi is coming to Bengal regularly to seek votes. But the people will give him rasogollas made of clay with fillings of gravel; his teeth will break if he tries to take a bite”. Asadduddin Owaisi’s brother Akbaruddin Owaisi Owaisi had threatened saying “If police is removed for 15 minutes we (Muslims) will finish 100 crore Hindus”. But Asaduddin Owaisi is invincible in Hyderabad constituency. In terms of seats, TMC outnumbered BJP’s seats. Construction of Ram Mandir did not facilitate the election of BJP candidate in Ayodhya. Though Modi fared better in the last 10 years, Modi has been unfortunately ‘cut to size’. It is always the leaders ability irrespective of the quality of leadership that matters to take the party or parties to the seat of power. People are resigned to their fate that retention of power by the ruling party or ascendency to power by the opposition parties has nothing to do with good deeds or misdeeds of the governing body. Leaders of I.N.D.I.A. bloc are in jubilant mood with its increased tally of seats and have been strongly criticizing the NDA forgetting that they (I.N.D.I.A. bloc) have got less number of seats than BJP-led NDA. I.N.D.I.A. bloc has been giving a message that the people of India have realized that the opposition parties are quite fit to remain in opposition benches this time also. Undoubtedly they are good at being in the opposition seat.
