Bleak prospects for BJP in the East & South

India's longest train journey - on the Vivek Express - weaves through states not enamoured by the BJP's prime ministerial candidate

People were everywhere. On the floor outside the stinking toilets that weren’t cleaned for three days, on the space between the two lower berths and when there was no place left on the ground, they pulled out pieces of cloth and slung these like hammocks, into which they slid for the rest of their journeys. That’s how they lived for four days, as the Vivek Express (India’s longest train journey in terms of distance) crawled the 4,200 km between Dibrugarh and Kanyakumari.

DIBRUGARH TO ALIPUR
Once a week, Saturday to be precise, the Vivek Express loads and then unloads young men and women from one end of the country to another. And, at around midnight, when the train gave its final whistle at a surprisingly clean Dibrugarh station, it seemed it was announcing the departure of an entire generation from one India to another, where they would live separated from their families by a few thousand kilometres.

Those who boarded the train were similar. Their lack of education, poverty and the hope of a better future united them. Their skills divided them. The carpenter was higher in their hierarchy than the mason; the electrician was higher than both the carpenter and the mason, and so on. Even before they knew each other’s name, they could guess where the other stood in the hierarchy.

As the train made its way from Assam, through Nagaland and into West Bengal, it became clear that unlike Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, people in the Northeast weren’t easily excited about politics. The attitude was categorised by indifference because of the region has been torn apart because of civil strife. For some, as the Northeast had very few seats in the Lok Sabha, the region was usually ignored.

“What government?” asked Roopak Datta, 26, who worked as a supervisor at a construction site in Thiruvananthapuram. “If there was a government, I would not be taking this four-day train journey in search of work. If there is an emergency at home, how will I return to help?”

Renben, a 24-year-old Dimapur resident who studies engineering in Kerala, said, “Votes are bought. The person who pays money gets the ticket. So, what difference will my vote make?”

It seemed among the national parties, the Congress remained the most popular in the all the ‘Seven Sister’ states, barring Assam, where anti-incumbency weighed on three-time Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, and this could be a spoiler for the party in the state. Many Muslims complained Gogoi had failed to stop clashes between the Bodo and Muslim communities. They appeared to back Badruddin Ajmal’s All India United Democratic Front.

ALIPUR TO MIDNAPORE
As the train travelled over bridges across the Brahmaputra, West Bengal came in sight. From Alipur, New Jalpaiguri and Malda, more men jumped on to the train. They appeared more willing to have a discussion surrounding politics.

In West Bengal, people seemed more willing to discuss politics. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was the most popular politician. Many, across faiths and regions praised her work; her antics didn’t bother them. While the Left appeared much weaker than Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress, the Aam Aadmi Party’s Arvind Kejriwal and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi were merely faces they had seen on TV screens.

“Kejriwal aur Modi ka yahan bol balah nahi hai (Kejriwal and Modi don’t have much influence here),” said 27-year-old Hemant Kheriya from New Jalpaiguri. Maqbool Sheikh, 40, from Malda added, “The Trinamool Congress has done good work. It has brought us electricity and water.”

At night, the train rode through Odisha.

VISAKHAPATNAM TO NELLORE
On entering Andhra Pradesh, the issue of bifurcation of the state was an obvious topic of discussion. In Seemandhra, through which the train made its way, the popular mood was against the Congress; the party was criticised for being the architect of the split. “The Congress will suffer at the hands of the people in Seemandhra,” said Sachi Narayanan, 45, who works at a research institute in Rajahmundry.

The Congress’s loss, it seemed, would benefit the YSR Congress and the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), though YSR Congress chief Jaganmohan Reddy appeared to be more popular than his TDP counterpart N Chandrababu Naidu.

Again, the BJP or the AAP didn’t seem to have any traction here. “Modi has done good work in Gujarat. But in Andhra Pradesh, it is either the YSR Congress or the Telangana Rashtra Samithi,” said Kirti Patnaik, 29, who was waiting at the Vijayawada station for a train to Jamnagar, where he works at a Reliance Industries factory.

PALAKKAD TO KANYAKUMARI
In Kerala, the train began to be emptied. As it left Thiruvananthapuram, the Congress government, and the party’s Vice-President Rahul Gandhi were praised.

“Kejriwal may have a clean image but he does not have a political background. I have doubts over Modi’s intentions. But Rahul has his own personality. He is educated and has a clean image,” said Babu Tharakan, an ex-serviceman from Kerala.

People said they were more satisfied by the way the Oommen Chandy-led Congress government in the state managed affairs than the way the previous (Left) government did. Modi, too, seemed popular, though people said he wasn’t popular enough to pull off a BJP victory on his own.

After being on the train for four days, it appeared the route of the Vivek Express could be an eye-opener for Modi’s poll managers; wherever this train passed through, the prospects of a victory for Modi were bleak. For Kejriwal, however, his train is stuck in Delhi.