The Congress is facing three Ms — Modi, media and middle class — in the run-up to the Assembly polls in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Delhi in 2013 and the Lok Sabha elections next year.
Mr Narendra Modi is building up the poll campaign around his personality, thereby asking the Congress to project its PM candidate.
Elections are fought on issues, performance and programmes but he is influenced by the US election system.
“BJP is not depending on Modi in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Delhi to win the elections. This is because it has Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Raman Singh, Vasundhra Raje to lead the battle. But if the BJP wins all the four states then Modi will take the credit and compel the party to project him as the PM candidate,” Congress insiders viewed.
However, Mr Modi, who has been playing with words, symbols, hardly addresses real issues and projects an alternate model of development.
Interestingly, the Congress is more comfortable with Mr Modi than Mr L.K. Advani for various reasons. First, his emergence could change the electoral debate and second, he will find it difficult to get new allies after the Lok Sabha elections. But Mr Advani can, they said.
Media, they said, is playing its own game. It has made Mr Modi the national leader and has been covering his meetings live across the country. No political leader is getting such a wide coverage. “Media is controlled by moneyed people, directly and indirectly, and thus following their line. It is not only giving information, playing the role of opinion maker but also setting the agenda,” they viewed.
Indian middle class, which has been the beneficiary of developments and economic reforms is not enthused by the food security programme and the national rural employment guarantee act. It blames the government for everything without realising that it has become prosperous because of the Congress government’s policies.