Congress readies counter to BJP with electoral bonds, guarantees, but will that suffice?  

The perception that the Gandhis have abandoned Uttar Pradesh, the heart of the Hindi belt, is going to hurt it electorally

A few days ago, the Congress appeared struggling to match the high-pitched campaign of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that has set a target of over 370 seats for itself and above 400 for the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

But the issue of electoral bonds seems to have given much-needed ammunition to Congress and other opposition parties to take on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his BJP ahead of the crucial polls.

Risky Anti-Corruption Strategy

The grand old party is set to weave its campaign primarily around the electoral bonds in tune with its leader Rahul Gandhi's allegations that it is the world's biggest extortion racket run by the Prime Minister and the BJP.

The idea is to go to the people explaining to them that Modi uses the Enforcement Directorate (ED), the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Income Tax department to pressurise corporates to donate a substantial amount of money to the BJP in the form of electoral bonds if they want to escape the wrath of the government agencies.

However, the opposition, especially the Congress, will have to tread carefully while levelling any corruption charge against the Prime Minister as all its attempts in the past have fallen flat and even backfired.

Take for example the allegations of corruption in the Rafale jet aircraft deal. Rahul Gandhi tried to corner Modi on the alleged irregularities in the Rafale deal with France and coined a slogan “Chowkidar chor hai” directed at the Prime Minister in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. But the strategy failed to cut much ice with the voters who rejected his assertions and insinuations.

Modi returned to power with a bigger mandate than 2014.

The Congress was evidently outsmarted by the BJP’s campaign narrative of nationalism, national security and decisive action against terrorism in the form of air strikes on terror camps at Balakot across the Line of Control (LoC) in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). The strikes came in the wake of a terror attack in Pulwama (Jammu and Kashmir) on February 14, 2019, in which 40 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel were killed.

This time, the Congress needs to do its homework before embarking on any such mission. It is planning to reach out to the voters with an explainer on how the electoral bonds scheme was the biggest scam in Independent India, seeking help from other opposition parties in building up this narrative.

Communicating Social Justice Better?

Apart from the electoral bonds, Congress is going to focus its election campaign on the guarantees that party leaders announced in the run-up to the polls. To empower India, it has announced ‘Paanch Nyay’ (five guarantees) — Yuva Nyay (justice for youth), Bhagidari Nyay (justice of participation), Naari Nyay (justice for women), Kisan Nyay (justice for farmers), and Shramik Nyay (justice for workers).

It is important to see if these announcements would take the Congress over the 100-figure mark this time (the party bagged 44 seats in 2014 and 52 in 2019) given that in 2019, the party failed to convince the voters about its much-hyped promise of Nyay (Nyuntam Aay Yojana).

Billed as a game-changer, the proposed minimum income guarantee scheme of Rs 72,000 a year or Rs 6,000 a month to the country’s bottom 20 percent or five crore poorest-of-the-poor families did not create any impact on a majority of voters who once again reposed their faith in the BJP.

Rahul Gandhi has maintained his tempo on the caste census, arguing that despite being 90 percent of India’s population Dalits, Other Backward Classes (OBCs), minorities, tribals, farmers and labourers do not have any major representation in the government, corporate sector, bureaucracy, police and defence forces.

Though the issue could not find much resonance in the assembly elections in five states in December last year, the party hopes that it will have some impact on upcoming polls.

Hindi Heartland Disconnect

As compared to his first leg of the nationwide walkathon between September 2022 and January 2023 that helped in his image-makeover, Rahul Gandhi’s second phase of the Bharat Jodo Yatra, which started from Manipur on January 24 this year and will end in Mumbai on March 17, has not been able to generate much enthusiasm among the people.

One of the reasons could be that the connect with the people seen during the first leg is missing this time. Coming close to the elections, the former Congress president had to rush with his itinerary in the second phase of the yatra.

With Sonia Gandhi taking the Rajya Sabha route to Parliament and Rahul Gandhi sticking to Wayanad in Kerala, the Congress seems to be losing its connect with the Hindi heartland that continues to hold the key to power at the national level.

The perception that the Gandhis have abandoned Uttar Pradesh, the heart of the Hindi belt, is going to hurt it electorally. It is thus imperative for the Gandhi siblings to maintain their bond with the country’s politically important state and contest from there to keep the Congress afloat and boost the morale of its already demoralised workers in the Hindi heartland.

That said, the country in the next two months is going to witness an interesting battle between the opposition’s campaign theme of corruption, inflation, unemployment and economic issues versus the BJP’s narrative on nationalism and Hindutva in the context of abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir and the construction of the Ram temple.

Aurangzeb Naqshbandi is a senior journalist who has been covering the Congress for 15 years, and is currently associated with Pixstory. Views are personal, and do not represent the stand of this publication.