Rambo rides again

Analysts who optimistically believed Gujarat was a neck-and-neck race will soon be chewing the cud on how the caste arithmetic panned out, writes the author

If the Gujarat election were a Hollywood movie the fight would go down as a contest between Rambo and “Mr Zabardast”. Now that all exit polls give the BJP a heads up to comfortably form a government for the sixth time, it is clear that Narendra Modi, like the Vietnam vet Sylvester Stallone, skilled in aspects of survival, weaponry, hand-to-hand combat and guerrilla warfare, has vanquished Rahul Gandhi, the Congress’s new head who promised a “zabardast” (overwhelming) result. From his persistent fuelling of pan-Hindu nationalism to pandering to narrow Gujarati chauvinism, Rambo rides again, using fair means and foul —and