With a six-kilometre parade under a shower of flower petals, a religious ceremony in a temple dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva and a dip in the Ganges, Narendra Modi is pulling out all the stops to demonstrate that he is not only the most popular candidate, but also the most devout of Hindus.
On Monday, May 13, India's prime minister concluded the fourth phase of voting in the country's six-phase parliamentary elections in the holy city of Varanasi, his constituency. The electoral marathon is due to end on June 1, with results expected on June 4.
The 73-year-old, who is hoping to win a third consecutive term in office, has personalized these elections to the extreme. The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has all but disappeared from the campaign landscape. All that remains is a single figure, who monopolizes podiums and media attention. He holds rallies in contested constituencies every evening. Two symbolic figures of the far right, Interior Minister Amit Shah and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, a fundamentalist monk, barely appear in the background. Even the BJP's manifesto bears his name: "Modi's guarantees."
Yet, after four weeks of hype, confidence in the ruling camp has waned. The atmosphere has changed since the early days of the campaign, when Modi's victory seemed inevitable, and the climate is very different from that of 2014 and 2019, when the BJP and its leader destroyed everything in their path. They were buoyed by an immense wave of support – known as the "moditva" or "modimania" – in the face of a divided and weakened opposition. "To be sure, Modi himself remains popular, thanks to the personality cult he has painstakingly built. But his party’s candidates are being met largely with apathy, if not outright disdain," said Shashi Tharoor, one of the Congress Party's leaders, in an op-ed widely circulated in the press.
Unlike in the two previous elections, the opposition has put up a united front and has succeeded in capitalizing on the frustrations of a struggling population, facing mass unemployment and the rising cost of living. Above all, the BJP has failed to innovate, and its manifesto resembles more of an assessment than a plan. "The BJP's campaign shows a total absence of new ideas. In previous elections, the party was able to set the agenda, dictate the themes as well as the pace. This time, it has no strong proposals, and Modi, to rally his electorate, is forced to draw on anti-Muslim rhetoric that obviously aligns with the DNA of Hindu nationalists, but also shows a certain nervousness," said Gilles Verniers, a professor of political science at Amherst College in the United States.
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