Yashwant Deshmukh, the founder and director of C-Voter, said while speaking at the Festival of Idea’s “Narrative 2024” session that although the housewives’ “kitchen budget” is going out of hand, and the general public are worried about inflation and unemployment, yet when surveys on the ground are held amid the Opposition calling for ousting of the Modi government on these two accounts among many more, the voter of the next election feels there is no alternative to PM Modi just yet.
Even when the Opposition faced with the question of what should be the solution to these burning issues, they throw the ball into the prime minister’s court. They say “let Modi provide that solution”. It is a weird situation where Narendra Modi is both the problem as well as the solution.
Since the run-up to the 2014 general elections and till date, the biggest challenge that Modi’s BJP have had not to face is corruption at the central level.
Corruption under Modi has been erased from union government actors’ surroundings, said Deshmukh, adding that as such the “40 percent” and “50 percent” government of the Karnataka and Haryana BJP at the states’ level has been huge blows to the party.
So, as he sees it as of now, with still a few months to go for the ballot, inflation and unemployment might not necessarily convert into public anger or resentment.
