Pratinav Mishra
Prime Minister Narendra Modi won the Varanasi Lok Sabha constituency in Uttar Pradesh for a third consecutive term by defeating Congress candidate Ajay Rai by a margin of 1,52,513 votes. According to the results declared by the Election Commission of India (ECI) on 4 June, Modi, the Bharatiya Janata Party candidate from the seat, polled 6,12,970 votes with a vote share of 54.24 percent.
The BJP’s significant drop in win margin may be linked to joblessness, rising prices, growing inequality and a controversial army recruitment reform, among other things. Mr Modi’s harsh and divisive campaign, particularly targeting Muslims, could also have alienated voters in some regions. Modi’s ambitious slogan “Ab ki baar, 400 paar,” aiming for more than 400 seats for his NDA alliance, may have backfired, with such a massive majority raising fears of constitutional changes among the poor.
“It’s a moral defeat of PM Modi,” says Ajay Rai on Lok Sabha results of Varanasi
Rai, jubilant even in defeat, said he had scored a “moral victory”. As the sole challenger, he had not only stopped Modi from making a new victory margin record but also set one himself—losing to Modi with the smallest margin. It is not just Modi’s margin that has fallen. He got about 62,000 fewer votes this time (6.1 lakh compared to 6.8 lakh in 2019) despite the total votes in the constituency rising by about 70,000 (from 10.6 lakh to 11.3 lakh). His vote share dropped from 63.6% to 54.2%.
Modi bagged 6,12,970 votes to defeat Rai, who secured 4,60,457. In 2014, Modi’s victory margin was 3.7 lakh. Earlier in the day, TV news flashes had created a flutter when they showed Rai leading by 6,000 votes after the first three rounds of counting.
Modi’s parliamentary constituency poll management team convenor, Surendra Nara- in Singh Audhe, said, “In 2014, anti-BJP votes were divided among four contenders, while it was divided between two contestants in 2019.
Moreover, this time, an entire chunk of non-BJP votes went to the INDIA bloc candidate. This was the reason for the reduced victory margin.” Analysts said that the electoral verdict raised questions about the BJP’s strategy. As India’s long-drawn-out election campaign played out, Modi, India’s charismatic and polarising prime minister, had increasingly turned to fearmongering over an alleged plot by the opposition to hand over the nation’s resources to Muslims, at the cost of its majority Hindus.
The BJP’s campaign slogan, “Abki baar, 400 paar” (This time, more than 400), set a target of 400 seats for its alliance, and 370 seats for the BJP itself.
That pitch carried a “tone of overconfidence”, said Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, a Modi biographer, at a time when many in the Indian public were dealing with the lived realities of soaring prices, joblessness and income inequality so wide that it is now worse than during British colonial The result was the “sleepwalking of the BJP into a disaster”, said Asim Ali, a political analyst and columnist.
“Today, Modi has lost his face. He is not that ‘undefeated person’ and his invincible aura is not there any more,” said Ali
