Surveys during the election repeatedly threw up Mr Modi and Mr Kejriwal as the two prime leaders. Mr Kejriwal conducted himself extremely well while campaigning and managed to score telling debating points. So the first national implication of the elections is that the total dominance of Mr Modi over the national mindspace may henceforth begin to be challenged by a Mr Kejriwal - who, with remarkable spunk and foresight, set out to capture this space last year by going to Varanasi to contest against Mr Modi in the parliamentary elections and emerged as his foremost opponent.
The space that the Congress has occupied on the national scene since Independence as the default choice of the secular and the poor now seems set to be taken over by the AAP. Regional political parties in states like Tamil Nadu, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh are not to go away any time soon (in West Bengal, however, the Trinamool Congress appears to be self-destructing), but if you are looking for a face to take the space that successive members of the Nehru-Gandhi family occupied since Independence, then Mr Kejriwal has emerged as the foremost contender. This is the second implication.
There really is not much of a difference between the fiscal and economic policies of the BJP and the Congress. Both in their heart of hearts are for the reform process started in 1991. The Congress branched out a bit to the left under the influence of the National Advisory Council, but the process of correction started during the last part of United Progressive Alliance (UPA)-II itself, as demonstrated by the reduced spending on the rural jobs programme. But very broadly, the Congress remained the default option for not just the poor and the secular but also those who were focused on them. At a time when the single biggest setback in the last year to the idea of India as we know it has been the challenge to its secular persona, Mr Kejriwal has with gusto taken up that jhanda. If you want India to remain focused on the poor and the secular, you may like to bet on Mr Kejriwal who has none of the adverse baggage of a Mulayam Singh or a Mayawati. So the third implication is the Congress, in decline, handing over the ideological standard to Mr Kejriwal.
The next major national implication derives from the contrasting way in which the BJP and the AAP conducted themselves in the run-up to the elections. The BJP leadership functioned top-down. The Modi-Amit Shah duo called all the shots. They set aside the entire political leadership of the BJP in Delhi (not that it amounted to much) and para-dropped a Kiran Bedi on the electorate. That boomeranged. On the other hand, ever since the setback to the AAP in the parliamentary elections, its huge volunteer force reached out to the Delhi voter in all her diversity with a coherent message - we are sorry for the way we quit last time and we remain committed to fighting for your basic needs and against corruption.
As against this, there was significant disconnect in the campaign by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) workers on the one hand and the dispirited ones of the BJP on the other. The electorate didn't buy the message of the RSS, a disciplined top-down undemocratic organisation. The campaign publicity blitz of Mr Modi with Ms Bedi by his side was an extension of US presidential politics - Mr Modi and his small group have been calling all the shots in government. So implication number four - India is plural and cacophonous. The only way to go forward is slowly and untidily by seeking a degree of consensus. Try to blitzkrieg in a hurry and it will blow in your face.
Mr Kejriwal and the AAP may come to nothing, the way they did the first time round in Delhi. But there is reason for hope for both the poor who gave their vote and the educated middle class whose members manned the volunteer force and contributed liberally from Mumbai to Bengaluru for a clean, compassionate and secular India.
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