We got to watch the movie Maidaan right after the Lok Sabha verdict. The film tells the story of Syed Abdul Rahim, one of India’s greatest football coaches, who built the Indian football team from almost nothing and led it to unprecedented heights for a decade beginning in the 1950s.
While watching the movie, you experience disgust, helplessness, anger, the system’s obstinacy, and, above all, hope – all in equal measure. What inspires the most is the loud message reinforcing the longstanding belief in our innate ability to rise from the ashes.
We had several rise-from-the-ashes moments as the counting progressed on June 4 after a punishing election schedule and a disappointing campaign. From seemingly down-and-out politicians to humble debutantes making it big when the chips were down, we were witness to many such examples on June 4. Let us recap a few of them.
One of the biggest turnaround stories this time has been that of Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief Chandrababu Naidu. After a severe drubbing in elections five years ago, he had to endure a lot – a party in disarray following a demoralising defeat, four of his senior Rajya Sabha members deserting the ship, two months in jail on the eve of elections, and advancing age with little hope on the horizon. However, the fighter in him never gave up.
By the evening of June 4, he emerged as the go-to politician, being courted by almost everyone. Not only did his party sweep the assembly polls in Andhra Pradesh, but he also emerged as a kingmaker at the Centre and perhaps one of the formidable power centres during the entire duration of the 18th Lok Sabha.
Tipu Ban Gaya Sultan
Who would have thought that after the 2017 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections verdict, when the Samajwadi Party-Congress combine had fared very poorly, the ‘UP Ke Ladke‘, as Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and SP chief Akhilesh Yadav were referred to, would bounce back with a bang?
After the 2017 verdict, Akhilesh Yadav, also known as Tipu, tried various permutations and combinations, including allying with the SP’s once-arch-rival Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), with very limited success. Questions were raised about his leadership qualities, grassroots connect, ability to forge a successful coalition, and the seemingly insurmountable problem of taking his party beyond the limited vote base of Yadavs and Muslims.
The 2024 verdict shows that his PDA (an acronym consisting of backward classes, Dalits, and minorities) slogan became a hit, and his social engineering was a masterstroke. UP ke Ladke have finally delivered.
Beyond the two big heroes and some more, there were several unsung heroes of the 2024 verdict.
Crowd-funding To The Rescue
Who would have thought that the wife of a humble police constable would win the Lok Sabha elections from Rajasthan’s Bharatpur after being defeated in the assembly elections just a few months ago? Sanjana Jatav of the Congress achieved that feat with distinction.
The outcome of Gujarat’s Banaskantha Lok Sabha seat is going to be talked about for a long time. The Congress’s Geniben Thakor won the seat by a margin of more than 30,000 votes, ending her party’s Lok Sabha drought after 10 years in Gujarat. Notably, she crowd-funded her campaign as her party didn’t have enough resources to share.
For long-term watchers, Chandrashekhar Azad’s win from Uttar Pradesh’s Nagina Lok Sabha constituency will have implications beyond this round of elections. Claiming to be the true inheritor of foremost Dalit icon Kanshiram, he launched his Azad Samaj Party in 2020. After dabbling in many elections with limited traction, he finally made it big this time. He has been a disruptor and has the potential to change many equations in politically significant Uttar Pradesh. A Lok Sabha win may well be just the beginning.
Surprises Galore
The 2024 Lok Sabha elections have thrown up these and many more surprises. The BJP juggernaut vanquishing the seemingly invincible Naveen Patnaik’s Biju Janata Dal (BJD) in Odisha ranks as one of the biggest. So does the BJP winning a seat in Kerala. The Congress’s loss in Madhya Pradesh’s Chhindwara, a seat it has won in all elections except a bypoll, definitely falls in the category of big surprises. A Muslim woman winning a seat in Odisha – a first in the state’s history – should also qualify as a pleasant surprise. And the BJP’s loss in Faizabad, a constituency now on the global map because of the construction of a grand temple at Ayodhya, has elements of shock and awe.
While political scientists will have their lenses ready to look for cues as to which way the wind is blowing, for us, the stories of rising like a phoenix, big upsets, and shock-and-awe moments are central to how democracy has been evolving in the world’s most vibrant democracy.
The message from voters to politicians, as is evident from upsets and surprises, has been very clear: to use a slightly altered version of the inimitable Steve Jobs’ words – stay humble and stay foolish.
(Mayank Mishra is Consulting Editor and Vasudha Venugopal is Anchor and Political Editor, at NDTV)
Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author
