Manu Joseph: A theory of why the BJP did poorly in the elections

livemint.com:

A few days ago in my colony, I overheard a quarrel between a man who lived in a villa, like me, and a gardener. The master wanted some additional work to be done, and the gardener said that would cost him a few hundred rupees more. The master exploded in rage at the “greed" and poor work ethics of migrants.

He said, “You be careful. See what happened to Kejriwal? He acted too smart, not realizing his size." A few hours earlier, Delhi chief minister Kejriwal had been arrested on corruption charges. When the quarrel began, I thought there was something unusual about the moment, because by the laws of probability, it was likely that both men were in the vote base of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The master is not the average BJP voter, as his wealth and income are well above that level, but a very vocal one in the eyes of migrants. The urban master hides an underrated clue to why the BJP lost 92 of the 303 seats it had won in 2019 (it won new seats to reach 240). There was a time when the master and the gardener used to do the same things, like vote for the Congress and watch the same Hindi films.

There was even a period when their children went to the same school, or at least studied the same text books. But then, India changed and different classes did not do the same stuff in the same room anymore, unless one was serving. As the BJP rose to assume power at the Centre, different classes once again voted for the same party, and even the same ideology.

But this was an odd state of affairs and not fated to last. Apart from politicians and some paid actors, who are the BJP’s ambassadors? Upper middle-class people in propaganda, journalism, cinema and the culture business., mostly. There are others who are not so prominent