Lok Sabha elections: The giant-size flaw in BJP’s 2024 campaign that Modi doesn’t want to fix

financialexpress.com:

It is fairly evident by now that the dramatic split in the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) that saw Ajit Pawar lead a mutiny and take oath as the Deputy Chief Minister of the state was perhaps engineered by the Bharatiya Janata Party.

The apparent need to shore up greater support for Narendra Modi’s bid for a third straight term as Prime Minister is the likely design. Although the possibility that the BJP was preparing for the eventuality of the disqualification of a large number of Shiv Sena (Shinde camp) MLAs has not been completely ruled out yet.

Either way, the developments in the NCP, mirroring the revolt in the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena last year, have laid bare the fact that it is pure arithmetic that remains the predominant force behind BJP’s politics. Morality be damned!

The remark by BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis that “he never forgets anything”, an apparent reference to the embarrassment he faced at the hands of Sharad Pawar during Ajit’s failed mutiny in 2019, is a clear indication of the brazenness with which the BJP has normalised this new “model of governance”. Fadnavis’ government had lasted a few hours then.

In Bhopal last month, the PM himself called out the NCP over the involvement of its leaders in the ‘irrigation scam’ and came down heavily on the party for being family-driven. Two weeks later, the same leaders –one from the same family– were part of the government in alliance with the BJP.

The narrative around the BJP — a party that circles around power — is in stark contrast to the politics of “change” that Modi eloquently talked about in his campaign 10 years ago. A far cry from the narrative of an incorruptible, unblemished leader that saw Narendra Modi rise to power at the