Elsewhere, in Delhi, there were people who woke up the morning of April 26 to a sour taste in the mouth, smelling the coffee and it’s the odour of defeat, still smarting at the Congress decision not to field Priyanka Gandhi Vadra against Modi in Varanasi. Political analysts had thrashed threadbare the question the night before and the consensus was that Priyanka should have done a Smriti Irani in Varanasi, contested the election and, even if defeat comes her way, given a tough fight to Modi, and then post-May 23 more or less stationed herself in Varanasi, till at least 2022, to build a constituency and consensus to trounce the BJP, wipe the lotus out of every pond in Eastern Uttar Pradesh.

‘Mujhe har polling booth jeetna hai,” Modi told BJP cadre in Varanasi the day after “winning the election in Varanasi”. In the middle of a general elections, Modi was building a cadre of the BJP with the call ‘Mera Booth, Mera Booth… Har Har Mahadev’.

The last…Har Har Mahadev…is the challenge Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has to overcome if she wants to win Uttar Pradesh for the Congress by 2022. And Congress President Rahul Gandhi should get out of her way if the Congress and the family want to stay relevant in India’s politics. A Wayanad or even an Amethi victory will not matter if Modi returns to power with a BJP majority and an NDA super-majority.

The third phase of polling gave an indication of the wind twisting and turning. It started with Shashi Tharoor, fighting anti-incumbency in Kerala’s Thiruvananthapuram constituency, raising concern over the “EVM voting for the BJP”, triggering a slew of anti-EVM comments from an array of Opposition leaders, from Arvind Kejriwal to Mamata Banerjee; Sharad Pawar to Ashok Gehlot and Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav. Was the Opposition admitting defeat? The question was asked and next day, the Akshay Kumar interview put a seal on it.

The media sensed it and they were out in Varanasi in saturation-strength on April 25, covering Assi Ghat, the Modi Roadshow and the Ganga Aarti, several of the media boiling mad that Rahul Gandhi chickened and refused a Modi-Priyanka fight to the finish in Varanasi. Rahul Gandhi has single-handed screwed up the Opposition’s vow to divest Modi-Shah, the BJP, of power.

Some media April 25, post the Modi roadshow, asked if there was a “Modi wave” like that in 2014? Modi answered the question April 26, stating that there was a “countrywide pro-anti-incumbency wave” and he attributed it to abuses hurled on him and on the EVM by the opposition leaders. It is a mystery why opposition leaders have failed to learn that abusing the man never won them elections? It happened in 2014, in the Gujarat assembly elections and umpteen number of other times.

There is vanity also in Rahul Gandhi. The Congress for him is head and shoulders above the scattered regional parties and that gives it the right and reason to stand alone wherever it feels like – West Bengal; Kerala; Delhi, J&K and Uttar Pradesh. And Modi had all his alliance partners at his nomination filing while the Congress had nothing more to say than ‘Gang Cleaning’ and ‘Where’s Kyuto?’

The answer to that is Kyuto is in Japan and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan has been in India the most number of times than any other world leader in the last five years. And, in the same five years, the Modi Government has dug up Varanasi and turned it downside up. And the Congress does not see it! The Congress also does not see that concealed in Modi’s ‘booth majboot karo’ advice to BJP cadre is maybe fear that all maybe not hunky-dory in the rest of Uttar Pradesh. India! Are we all taking too much for granted? Is it that there is just the perception that Modi has conquered all, and won? From ‘Chowkidar’ to Varanasi, Modi has turned downside up all opposition claims. May 23 will tell if Modi won or lost. Till then, hold the EVMs. (IPA Service)