Narendra Modi and the BJP fought this election in only his name. The lack of majority, then, should come down to him.
One can call it a Surya-Tilak in Ayodhya. The rejection of temple politics, it’s a telegram from Uttar Pradesh to the Varanasi MP. The state that gifted him the Delhi throne in the last two elections has handed him the worst electoral defeat of his life. With his party considerably short of majority, the only ethical action left for him is to step down and let the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) choose a new leader. There are seven compelling reasons for him to do so.
First, since he fought the election only in his own name, sought votes only for himself and even his party’s manifesto was titled ‘Modi Ki Guarantee’, he has no moral or political right to head the next government. Ironically, the manifesto mentioned the word ‘Modi’ 67 times, and his party has lost a nearly identical number of seats that it had won in 2019.
Second, many of his Union ministers across several states have lost comprehensively, indicating his panoptic defeat – Smriti Irani, Ajay Mishra Teni, Arjun Munda, Kailash Choudhary, Sanjeev Balyan, Mahendra Nath Pandey, Kaushal Kishore, Rajeev Chandrashekhar, Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, Bhanu Pratap Singh Verma, Kapil Moreshwar Patil, R.K. Singh, V. Muraleedharan, L. Murugan, Raosaheb Dadarao Danve, Subhas Sarkar et al. As people lose faith in his ministers, following the principle that a council of ministers sinks and sails together, he should join the ranks of his ousted team.
Third, when the Congress delayed in declaring its nominee from Amethi, he taunted Rahul Gandhi: “Daro mat (Don’t be scared).” The Congress fielded Kishori Lal at the last moment, a nondescript leader who on Tuesday trounced Smriti Irani by 1,67,196 votes, a margin bigger than he could get in Varanasi.
Four, the Ayodhya slap. The city in whose name he had been mutilating Indian civilisation, the city that became the epicentre of his pernicious politics, the city in which he hurriedly inaugurated an under-construction temple this January in furtherance of his political objectives, rejected him today. Aptly, the word ‘Ayodhya’ means that “which can’t be won”….
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