If hubris had let the BJP-led NDA dispensation down in the Lok Sabha polls, Congress was consumed by the same infection during the just-concluded assembly polls to Maharashtra and Jharkhand.
Former Congress President Rahul Gandhi reacted to the Congress party's dismal show in Maharashtra terming it 'unexpected.' He added that his party will analyse the election outcome in detail.
This vapid response may sound clichéd to most of us. While failing to decipher his own party's drubbing in Maharashtra and riding piggyback on Jharkhand Mukti Morcha's stellar numbers in Jharkhand, the silver lining spelt out by Rahul Gandhi for the Congress-JMM alliance was "a victory for protection of water, forest, land and the Constitution'.
In hindsight, the Congress bigwigs' folly was to interpret the 2024 Lok Sabha results in Maharashtra as a positive mandate in the party's favour rather than as a reprimand for BJP's whataboutery.
In Maharashtra, Rahul Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge and senior functionaries merely reiterated the same perceived threat bulwarks of caste, community, Constitution and crony capitalism rather than providing an alternative hope.
But the BJP strategists had their gameplan chalked out.
For BJP, the antidote to Congress' anti-majoritarianism was an unbridled counter polarisation. Sabka saath sabka vikas was transformed to batenge toh katenge.
The results project one embedded truth from both the states.
Women were not just the deciding factor but the dictating factor in these assembly polls.
BJP's tally in Maharashtra has a clear lesson for political parties run as elite family fiefdoms; bungling dynasts may not emerge as seasoned performers at the hustings. Set aside money power, the Congress was outmaneuvered by the BJP's political chicanery, candid outreach and the gamut of social welfare dollops on the electorate.
Grandstanding and pedigree no longer impress the voters. Or else how does one explain a political party run by scions being effectively usurped by an outsider in Eknath Shinde who scuttles the successors of the patriarchal outfit?
An existential dichotomy about who is the loyal Shiv Sena, Uddhav Thackeray's faction or Chief Minister Eknath Shinde's cohorts has also cropped up.
Apart from Eknath Shinde in Maharashtra and the heavyweight Soren couple in Jharkhand, the star performer calling the shots in incognito mode was the RSS.
A big question underlines the RSS punch evident in these elections.
Did Shiv Sena (UBT) supremo Uddhav Thackeray play his own nemesis by playing up to the Muslim clergy and deserting Balasaheb's Hindutva plank? That is precisely where the inconspicuous RSS stalwarts ensured the ideological last-mile delivery as earlier in Haryana.
Similarly, the Santhal Parganas belt in Jharkhand with a phenomenal demographic shift involving the tribes would be the next theatre where the well-nurtured Hindutva ecosystem would play out in future.
Social welfare schemes empowering women have been in the limelight in both Maharashtra and Jharkhand. Like Lakshmir Bhandar in West Bengal where the Trinamool Congress has swept all the six assembly bypolls, the BJP's Ladki Bahin Yojana boosted the voting percentage among Maharashtra’s women voters to over 65 per cent.
Taking a leaf out of its rival's books, the JMM too launched Maiya Samman Yojana in Jharkhand.
Like farm loan waivers in the past, these populist women empowerment schemes -- essentially doles -- would surely dot the Indian political landscape in future as all parties seem hellbent on reaping its benefits at the cost of draining the state exchequer. Political dividends always come at the cost of sound economics and these women-centric schemes could be gamechangers in the ensuing Delhi assembly polls too.
As in the case of Haryana, national ramifications of these hustings would be immense.
For one, the Maharashtra landslide is a huge fillip for the BJP and overshadowed Priyanka Gandhi Vadra's massive though expected win in the bypolls in Wayanad. Instead of focusing on the states, the fight for one sureshot Lok Sabha seat saw a beeline of Congress sycophants while the alliance with JMM in Jharkhand reduced the grand old party to a regional satrap's tailwind.
Mamata Banerjee and her TMC may go gaga over their bypoll sweep in West Bengal but her wish to play a decisive role in the I.N.D.I.A bloc goes for a six. And for the Congress party's hopes of playing kingmaker in the opposition space is back to square one.
The I.N.D.I.A alliance could transform into a ragtag cabal of warring chieftains as the BJP capitalises on these numbers to checkmate key opposition players and go full throttle at Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party as it looks to find its next electoral bastion.
