His promise of his nontraditional political approach paid dividends beyond expectations. By not mentioning, leave aside criticism, of his opponents he had demolished them into non-existence and broken the stranglehold of class politics. The fall in attendance in his election rallies in rural expanse, lack of enthusiasm displayed by the party at office during the selection of candidates, absence of outrage over denials even to sitting members does show the lack of enthusiasm except among the class engaged in circulating same messages on social media.

His campaign in this election has missed even mention of the economic dream of young. Instead it was heavily loaded with criticism of the Congress branding it with corruption. He even used the rural and rustic idioms to convey his message of the corrupt Congress regimes even though voters had already given their verdict in the last election. Perhaps, his advisers did not deem it necessary to mention that the Janata Dal leader VP Singh had sustained his campaign on no other issue but kick backs in defence deals in the 1989 election and for two years prior to the election and yet he had ended up 93 less numbers than the Congress led by the former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. In recent times after he took over the reins, the BJP had concentrated its Bihar assembly election campaign in 2015 on painting the former chief minister Lalu Yadav and his family as the most corrupt, yet Lalu Yadav is the only one to have 85 per cent success and the BJP could not reach even near to the power seat.

Narendra Modi is not an ordinary person that he would not comprehend from reading of the past performances that negative approach in life pays not, and certainly not in the political arena. Voters are not concerned over the past of parties and persons that they have voted out. Mamta Bannerji had built her politics on a negative approach for two and half decades in Bengal. She was severe critic of the left parties rule and never hesitated to hurl abusing phrases at them. Yet success eluded her till she converted her approach to something different with a promise to deliver a different kind of regime. Lalu Yadav in Bihar and Mulayam Singh in Uttar Pradesh could consolidate their hold over different intermediate castes that were always in conflicts of interests to come under their leadership with enticement of a share in political power. Kashi Ram also aroused similar passions in hearts of the Dalit to bring them under the same flag. In the view of the upper caste, all of them were wrong as their efforts resulted in deprival to them of control of the political system. NaMo had virtually repeated it. Yet he reverted to a negative politics by giving up his catalysts. The intriguing issue is why he did so. No immediate answer is obvious.

Instead of his catalyst mantra, though he could not have reaped same benefits as in the last election, it could have impressed new voters added over the participants in the last election. The geographic reach and mathematic of electoral politics dependent on it was not in his favour yet he could have avoided the whirlpool of negativism. He is now loaded with dead wood of issues that have not yielded positive results in the past. He does no mention them either in his electoral lectures. Yet he has no winning mantra up his sleeve except the belief that he is the only towering political personality. Voters would not want coalition politics is yet another belief for overconfidence. The urban middle class would prefer stability of one party rule. It is true but same rule cannot apply to rural mass.

He did get mandate but could not rinse out of coalition politics as he had to and he did maintain the coalition of National Democratic Alliance. India had first non Congress government in 1977 but it collapsed under the weight of personal ambitions of three fighting old men. Charan Singh, Chandra Shekhar, Devegowda and Gujral governments collapsed as the main supporting party the Congress withdrew support. The coalition of VP Singh was brought down by the BJP. Then India saw the coalition governments of Narsimha Rao and Vajpayee and Man Mohan Singh complete full terms in office. The succession of coalition governments for 30 years has in fact delivered better economic growth rate with removal of restrictive structure to allow participation by private sector. Yet it resulted in enhancing economic disparities, more so in rural economies.

The educated urban middle class dreads the prospects of a coalition politics for it invariably sees a reduced role and also the fact that they have to share in power to the intermediate class but rural masses do not dread as it provides them a share in power. NaMo has assured that he is coming back. Most of urban middle class also believe that he is certain to get a clear majority though they are unable to identify geographic areas where he can make up for losses in areas where he had swept out his opponents. In overall, their confidence is merely conversion of their fears. They do not want coalition politics but they have little say as the overwhelming majority in the electorate is not afraid of it as the single party rules have not delivered to hem in the past their due share in prosperity. Obviously younger generation has not even read pages of history to have idea of life that had prevailed for first two decades of independence.