If BJP wins big, how will size matter? Five things party will watch out for

Even if the results for the BJP are as massive as the exit polls have predicted, there will be smaller details that the party will be watching out for.

If the majority is smaller, or if the Opposition’s best-case scenario comes true, the Narendra Modi-Amit Shah-dominated party can expect voices of disgruntlement within to grow.

Ever since he became the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate in 2013, Narendra Modi has been the face of the party, and at the heart of all its activities. Both in 2014 and 2019, the party’s massive mandate was seen as a reflection of how Modi had transcended caste lines, bringing together a coalition of disparate groups, especially in Uttar Pradesh. This was an add-on to the successful messaging by the Modi government of its widespread welfare schemes, “hassle-less” delivery of the same, and its “big-vision” focus on grand infrastructure projects.

Unlike the past two Lok Sabha elections though, voters did not seem as under the Modi spell this time, especially from the lower social and economic strata, who expressed their anger over issues such as the Agnipath scheme, the paper leaks, the “lack of jobs”, the government’s attitude towards farmers etc. The Opposition, which talked of caste census, also seemed to strike a chord with its sustained campaign that a returning Modi government would change the Constitution and “remove reservations”.

If the BJP largely holds on in the Hindi heartland, it will be a defeat of the Opposition’s narrative. And a reaffirmation that Modi overrides local voter concerns – a sentiment that was visible as one met people on the ground.

Now it is almost a cliche that the party election machinery, supervised keenly by Amit Shah, is at work 24X7. Change that to 24X7X365 days,