Feb 09, 2025 08:05 PM IST
The bloc’s internal configuration has a serious problem. It does not have any set of ideas that can pave the way for a common minimum programme
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which was struggling to replicate its remarkable Lok Sabha performances in Delhi at the assembly level for a long time, has finally succeeded. The party has now established itself as the dominant player, both in terms of vote share and its conversion into seats, in Delhi. However, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)’s respectable vote share (43.57%) underlines its strong base in Delhi. The party was also able to force the BJP to refashion its electoral campaign. That was the reason why civic issues and service delivery became the most debated electoral concerns in Delhi. The Congress also accepted this framework of politics almost uncritically. The results underline three crucial political trajectories, which will reshape the contours of political discourse in the country.
First, the political class has accepted a model of governance that I call the charitable State model. This model is based on the premise that the task of the State is to build the capacity of its citizens to survive in the market-dominated economic sphere. The welfare schemes offered by the BJP, the AAP and even the Congress in these elections demonstrate that welfare is no longer seen as a civic right: It is packaged as schemes to highlight a kind of political benevolence.
The argument that this acceptance of the freebie culture is an outcome of an India-specific politics of clientelism does not fully capture the expanding role of the charitable State model. Political parties seem to create an imaginary dividing line between the economic sphere (celebrated in terms of growth rate and the ever-expanding economy) and the election-driven imagination of democracy. There is a political consensus that the market-driven economic sphere is self-regulating, where everyone (citizens, big business, and global corporations) is free to participate and compete. The socioeconomic marginalisation of households is defined as a lack of capability in this framework. The political class does not want to address these issues in the economic sphere. Instead, electoral politics is presented as the site where capability and/or relative marginalisation of the citizens can be resolved. Long-term structural issues such as growing unemployment, economic disparity, and even pollution, are almost ignored while welfare grants are highlighted.
Growing professionalism is the second important trajectory of our election-centric imagination of democracy. This election has reconfirmed that political parties have started behaving like political firms and in a professional manner. The idea of winnability was the guiding principle for ticket-distribution and electoral mobilisation. The BJP was best placed to take advantage of this turn. The party was able to attract not merely leaders of rival parties but also party workers. Its presence as a hegemonic force, too, played a role.
Professionalism also affected the voting pattern. The average voter is hard-pressed to distinguish between the AAP and the BJP as both parties subscribe to a similar set of ideas and scheme packages. In this highly volatile political context, one can expect two kinds of voting — candidate-centric voting, where the candidate would become the primary attraction for voters because of his/her past performance, and package-centric voting, where the voter prefers to support the candidate who proposes effective delivery of his/her party’s scheme-packages. In other words, professionalism in politics is not restricted to political parties; the voters also behave smartly and professionally.
This brings us to the third emerging political trajectory — the future of the INDIA bloc as a coalition. The bloc’s internal configuration has two serious problems. It does not have any set of ideas that can pave the way for a common minimum programme. The Congress election manifesto for the 2024 general elections, which tried to offer an alternative agenda for future politics, was almost ignored by other INDIA bloc constituents. The AAP’s case is very relevant here. The party moved away from its anti-corruption politics to embrace a Hindutva-driven charitable State model in Delhi. Yet, it presented itself as a political force against the BJP. This ideological unevenness has affected the INDIA bloc’s prospects, especially after the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
The region-specific consideration is another of the INDIA bloc’s problems. The regional partners would like to preserve their political hegemony at the state level while seeking a formidable national coalition against the BJP at the Centre. These paradoxes and contradictions influence public perception and voting behaviours in the states. A coalition is expected to spell out its guiding principles if it wishes to present itself as an alternative political force. The argument that a combined Opposition could defeat the BJP may not work going ahead. The defeat in Delhi is likely to destabilise the AAP as a political entity. Consequently, it will weaken the INDIA bloc as well.
Hilal Ahmed is associate professor, Centre for Studies of Developing Societies (CSDS). The views expressed are personal
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