As lotus withers in South India, Congress finds a silver lining

Even though the Congress has been losing ground across India, this outcome is nevertheless a victory for the grand old party because it is just the third of 16 Assembly elections the Congress has won in just over two years.
The party, riding on the anti-incumbency factor that had reached a tipping point, managed to pull off magic in practically all areas of Karnataka despite personal disputes among state leaders.
Even the renowned Modi magic, which the prime minister personally oversaw during the final stages of the election campaign, was unable to inspire voters to make a wise choice.Voters were successfully led to believe by the Congress that Rahul Gandhi and D K Shivakumar were the targets of a coordinated BJP campaign to silence them. 
Gandhi’s withdrawal from Parliament and his official residence, as well as the national exposure of the defamation action against him stemming from his Kolar speech regarding the Modi surname, did their fair lot to harm the BJP’s chances.Due to the controversy surrounding them, two of the key pledges made by the BJP in its manifestou2014the application of a unified civil code and the creation of a national registry for citizens (NRC)u2014did not contribute much either.
The Bengaluru-Mysuru motorway and the Bengaluru Metro were among the main infrastructure projects the BJP depended on in Karnataka, but it placed less of an emphasis on the development of semi-urban and rural regions. In other states, the BJP takes pleasure in delivering development projects for all people, or Sabka Vikas. If Bommai really intended to look back, he would need to determine what prevented anti-incumbency feeling in Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat and what encouraged it in Himachal Pradesh and, more recently, Karnataka.
The message is quite clear: the BJP cannot be helped by the Modi factor alone, at least not in the southern states. They do have leaders, but not many of them have the conviction to keep their word. The presence of a group of disgruntled apostates brought forth fresh issues. The present results would undoubtedly upset the BJP’s ‘look south’ policy, as they have been pursuing an aggressive expansion plan in Tamil Nadu and a goal of luring Christians to Kerala. Karnataka is crucial to the BJP’s calculations because it gave the party 25 seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
But for the Congress, it’s all about resurgence. It now holds political authority in four states and has alliances with three other states. In contrast to earlier negotiations, this victory will solidify its leadership of the Opposition pack in advance of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.The politics of the rest of India are frequently very different from those of the south, therefore it is important not to read too much into the Karnataka results just yet.
The elections that will most likely take place in the latter two months of 2023, notably in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, will thus serve as the actual curtain-raiser to the major electoral contest that will take place the following year.
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