2023 was a “khatta-meetha” year for those interested in Indian politics. While Congress had a lot to enjoy because the party won with a landslide victory in Karnataka, defeating the incumbent BJP, the BJP, at the end of the year, shook the whole nation by winning 4 out of 5 state elections. January starts with BJP’s national executive meeting in Delhi, where the party pondered the reasons for the loss in Himachal Pradesh, the resounding victory in Gujarat and the way forward for the 2024 elections. At the same time, BJP President Shri J.P Nadda got an extension for his term. PM Shri Narendra Modi asked the office bearers to reach out to Bohra Muslims and Christians specifically through “Sneh Yatras” this year. A lot was at stake because the party was going to fight Congress in Karnataka along with 3 NE states – Meghalaya, Mizoram and Tripura. Congress was busy wrapping up the Bharat Jodo Yatra, which entered its last leg in Jammu and Kashmir, where the Gandhi scion talked about bringing back Article 370.  The internet saw both Gandhi siblings playing with snowballs. In January itself, Congress suffered a setback in Punjab where former Minister Shri Manpreet Singh Badal left the party and joined the BJP because of differences within the party and blamed the leadership. Both parties were gearing up for the Karnataka battle. Congress did the AAP thing in Karnataka by announcing 200 units of free electricity and Rs. 2,000 to every woman while the BJP was focusing on preparing a strategy to tackle the anti-incumbency in the state. Just a few days before the Union Budget 2023 was to be presented, the Hindenburg report erupted like a volcano which targeted Asia’s richest tycoon, Shri Gautam Adani, over stock manipulation and fraud. The report provided a golden opportunity for the opposition to create a ruckus across the country. The Congress started to take this alleged scam as something which the BJP took in the form of the 2G scam in 2013-14, which further led to ousting the incumbent UPA government. 

On February 1, 2023, the Modi Government presented one of the most economy-friendly budgets focusing on dynamic public policy reforms, but the corridors of parliament were echoed with the voice of enquiry against Gautam Adani. The Congress, eyeing on upcoming elections in Karnataka, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, and Madhya Pradesh, also organized its 85th plenary session at Raipur, Chhattisgarh. With the 85th plenary session, the party also amended its Constitution and introduced 85 changes to it, which included providing 50% of posts to SCs, STs, OBCs, Women, Youth and minorities in its organization at all levels. It also talked about restoring special status to Jammu Kashmir, North Eastern States, 

BJP was eagerly waiting for the election results in Tripura, Meghalaya and Nagaland on March 2, 2023, as the party and the Vichar Parivaar had relentlessly strengthened the organization and mobilised the voters. On the evening of March 2, 2023, there was a celebration at BJP HQ, New Delhi, as the party won all three states. The party clean-sweetened these states while Congress performed its worst in the elections. At the same time, there was silence in the Maharashtra BJP office as the party lost the Kasba Peth by-poll and won the Pimpri-Chhinchwad seat. The death of Pimpri Chinchwad MLA Shri Mukta Tilak and Kasba Peth MLA Shri Laxman Jagtap passed away, necessitating the elections in these two seats. This bye-election was an Agni-Pariksha of the newly formed Mahayuti Government. The BJP lost the Kasba seat to Congress while retaining the Pimpri-Chhinchwad seat. Congress’s win in Kasba was highlighted as the collective win of MVA. While election results might remain the highlight of March, another activity made it to headlines worldwide. The Gujarat High Court on March 23, 2023 convicted Rahul Gandhi in the defamation case and sentenced him to a 2-year jail. Post the judgement, the Lok Sabha secretariat took no time to issue a notice stating that Shri Rahul Gandhi, MP from Wayanad, has been suspended. The whole opposition united and protested against the suspension, while the BJP decided to take the verdict to the streets, calling Rahul’s remark an insult to the OBCs across the nation. This time, the poster boy of the opposition was attacked, and even the international media took note of the suspension. 

The month of April 2023 can be observed as the revival of Mandal-Kamandal politics again, as Shri Rahul Gandhi demanded the implementation of a nationwide caste census. He accused the BJP of befooling the backward-class people and demanded the removal of the 50% reservation cap set by the court. With BJP successfully consolidating the OBCs and upper castes across the nation and winning elections after elections, the Congress party changed its strategy to play its OBC politics. Within no time, DMK Chief MK Stalin organized a conference on social justice that also demanded a caste census. The conference was attended by all opposition leaders like Chhagan Bhujbal, Derek O’Brien, Akhilesh Yadav, Ashok Gehlot, etc. Bihar was already ahead of all the states as in April, the second round of caste survey started. With no reaction from the BJP on Caste Cenus, the opposition painted the silence as the BJP is against the backward classes. 

The month of May came as a huge shocker for the BJP. The BJP lost the Karnataka elections badly. It is said that the BJP was sufferring from high anti-incumbency, internal fighting and allegations of corruption that led to the party’s defeat. Though the Congress faced difficulty in selecting the CM of the state, the party still managed to handle this crisis as well. This was the time for the BJP to assess the Chintan internally. From Karyakartas to voters to even the right-wingers across the nation, all were upset with the defeat of the party in the state. All started blaming each other in the party while the Congress projected itself as the big brother amongst the united opposition. After winning Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka, the Congress was sure that if opposition unity happened, all the alliance partners would surely listen to them. Taking TMC from Bengal, AAP from Delhi, SP from UP, JDU from Bihar, DMK from Tamil Nadu and other regional parties, the Congress started the process of opposition unity. 

June 2023 emerged as the month of opposition unity. Nitish Kumar, whose only dream is to become the Prime Minister of India, hosted the first opposition meeting at Patna, Bihar. The agenda was one “Modi Hatao, Desh Bachao”. Usually, the opposition in any nation strives to uphold democracy by debating on policies and putting forth a better vision than the incumbent government but the opposition in India is more interested in replacing Modi and coming to power. This “opposition unity” drama will be the second failed attempt after they were defeated badly in the 2019 general elections. Big agendas were kept at the meeting. From seat sharing to campaigning together, everything had to be discussed. 

July 2023 should be regarded as the most surprising and entertaining month of Indian politics. The biggest news comes from Maharashtra, where Shri Ajit Pawar and other NCP MLAs joined the Shinde-Fadnavis MahaYuti Government and served as Deputy Chief Minister. Though this was not something new for the people of Maharashtra, as they saw such acts in 2019 and then in 2022 as well, a split in NCP too, was going to change the political arithmetic. Maharashtra, with second highest Lok Sabha seats, sent a message to the opposition that its broken and many opposition leaders in future too might join the BJP. All eyes were on Sharad Pawar as he also considers himself in the race to become PM. The whole focus was on the next opposition alliance meeting scheduled to be in Banglore. The meeting decided the new name of the alliance I.N.D.I.A (Indian National Development Inclusive Alliance). As soon as the name was announced, the BJP took a dig at the name, stating that the opposition can’t hide its past full of corruption behind the name similar to the country’s name with dots and dots. 

The rainy season Monsoon arrives in the month of August and this month too was the most happening one in India’s politics. The Monsoon session of the parliament started with the suspension of Rahul Gandhi’s conviction and his return to the parliament. The opposition was adamant in the debate on Manipur violence. Another issue on which the opposition seemed united was the Delhi services bill, which directly impacted the AAP government in Delhi. Arvind Kejriwal’s only condition to support the INDIA alliance was that all other opposition parties must support the AAP in voting against the Delhi services bill. As soon as the opposition saw that none of their tactics were working in the parliament, the alliance decided to move a No Confidence Motion in the house to send a strong message across the country. The No Vote Motion was a cakewalk for the Modi government as they already had the required numbers to win the trust, but it gave the Government a chance to reply to each and every allegation of the opposition. Similarly, while voting on the Delhi services bill, the opposition could not gather the required numbers to oppose the bill, and it was easily passed from both houses of the parliament. The month ended with the “INDIA bloc” meeting in Mumbai, where the alliance still could not decide the number of seats each alliance partner would contest, and the meeting turned out to be just a photo-op chai – paani session. 

September 2023 will go down in the history of Indian politics as the month for Women’s Empowerment. There were rumours coming from the corridors of power that the Government might bring new legislation by organizing a special session of the parliament. With this, the MPs will also get to sit in the new parliament building, and something important might be taken up just before the elections. Most people were thinking about the Uniform Civil Code or One Nation One Election. At the same time, PM Shri Narendra Modi left everyone in the nation awestruck when he represented our nation at the prestigious G20 meeting in New Delhi, where “Bharat” was written on his placard rather than “India”. The nation felt so proud of using this word, and everyone started a discussion about whether the government might bring legislation to rename India as Bharat. In the past few elections, it can be clearly seen that BJP’s vote share among women has been increasing exponentially. The BJP Government has strived hard to uplift the lives of women. Be it the Triple Talaq Bill to provide relief to Muslim women or providing collateral-free loans to SC/ST women; the BJP has always focused on women’s cohort. Taking a step forward in the same direction, the Government introduced the 33% women’s reservation bill in the parliament. The opposition found itself in a fix as it could not oppose the legislation and passed the bill from both houses of the parliament. Another setback to the opposition unit came from Tamil Nadu, where the minister and son of Tamil Nadu CM Udhayanidhi Stalin delivered a controversial remark stating that Sanatan Dharma should be abolished. Within no time, his statement went viral and the BJP took this opportunity to make it a national issue. This issue will continue to haunt the opposition, especially Congress, in upcoming state elections and even the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. 

October and November were more like election preparation months for political parties going to compete in 5 state elections. The political pundits predicted Congress’s victory in Madhya Pradesh, Chhatisgarh and Telangana, while BJP won only in Telangana and Mizoram. The BJP had already declared its candidates much before the MCC and, this time, focused more on resolving the internal fighting that was missing during the Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka elections. Congress banked its whole campaign on caste census, unemployment and inflation while completely ignoring the opposition unity. The Congress also tried to copy-paste its strategies of announcing freebies in all the states, expecting a similar result to Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka. All eyes were on December 3, 2023, when the election results were to be announced. 

December 3, 2023, all eyes were glued to the television screens as the counting started. The Chhattisgarh Congress unit had already ordered sweets as the party was sure to win the elections. As the clock struck 12 noon, the political picture in all the states was completely clear. The BJP snatched victory from Congress in 4 states – Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhatisgarh and Mizoram. The Congress defeated the BRS in Telangana but lost 2 Governments in Chhatisgarh and Rajasthan. There was happiness across all the BJP units. Months and months of hard work by the BJP and Sangh Karyakartas finally paid off in December. Many who thought that the BJP’s downfall had started after the defeat in the previous two elections could not utter a single word. As soon as the results were announced, a discussion started on who will be the CM in all these states. Since the BJP went ahead in these elections without any CM face, everyone started guessing the names for the CM post. After much deliberation, the party surprised everyone by announcing fresh faces for the three states. All CMs come with an RSS background and are known to handle the BJP organization very well. 

The year 2023 surely had many lessons to learn for all political parties and even political pundits and survey agents. The BJP learnt its lessons from the past failure and fought the elections with a united front, while the Congress suffered a huge loss due to internal fighting. The new year has already started, and still the INDIA bloc has not decided on seat sharing and plan for collective campaigning. The rift between the opposition alliance partners has already started coming out as Arvind Kejriwal has denied giving Congress any seats in Punjab while Mamata Banerjee has also announced the same in Bengal. The BJP has already created a narrative across the whole world about Prabhu Shri Ram Mandir’s inauguration, and the party units have promised free temple darshan to the BJP supporters. PM Shri Narendra Modi and Shri Amit Shah have already started deliberations on election strategies, keeping development and Hindutva at the forefront. Everyone is now sure that the BJP will win the 2024 Lok Sabha elections but will it be able to break all the records, is the question one should ask? Whatever the final number is, I am happy and sure that Bharat will progress much more in the next five years under the leadership of PM Shri Narendra Modi Ji.

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