A wheel-chair bound Mamata Banerjee, early this year, thwarted the BJP juggernaut but as the saffron party failed to breach India’s political Troy, the tigress of Bengal couldn’t win Nandigram- the place wherefrom she had led a revolution to dislodge the banyan Left.
Suvendu Adhikari, her friend turned foe, claimed Nandigram, forcing the chief minister to contest from her bastion Bhawanipur. At stake is the chief minister post and Didi is in the ring with BJP’s Priyanka Tibrewal, credited with drawing legal course for complaints on post-poll violence in Bengal. Both women native to Bengal, both confident, this contest then is inevitably gripping and send a reminder of such electoral battles in the past.
The year was 1984, but not that Orwellian yet. Many royals in India were taking the electoral plunges after Indira Gandhi’s move to strip them of control. Most royals abhorred the Congress and aligned with the Jan Sangh, BJP’s root party.
Madhavrao Scindia Vs Atal Bihari Vajpayee
Ladai ghar ghar ki
The Maharaja of Gwalior Jiwajirao Scindia had a great role in the mentorship of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, a scholarship from rajgharana had ensured that the former Prime Minister completed his education. So, when the BJP stalwart decided to fight the Lok Sabha elections, he had clear blessing from Rajmata Vijaya Raje Scindia, who was the then vice-president of the BJP. However, Vajpayee ended up locking horns with Her Majesty’s son Madhav Rao Scindia after Congress put him up as a candidate on the last day of filing nominations.
Vajpayee decided to fight from neighbouring Bhind, but couldn’t make it in time to file his paper. As the epic poll battle ensued so did ladai ghar ghar ki. Rajmata campaigned for Vajpayee, calling her subjects to vote against her son.
BJP won only 2 seats in the 1984 Lok Sabha elections. Gwalior wasn’t one of them. The Scindia defeated Vajpayee by a margin of over 1.75 lakh votes.
Sonia Gandhi Vs Sushma Swaraj
Foreign Bahu Vs Indian Beti
Desi-Videshi Narrative
In 1999, Sonia Gandhi contested the Lok Sabha election from two constituencies- Karnataka’s Bellary and Uttar Pradesh’s Amethi.
Although she won both the seats, the Bellary poll wasn’t your average election battle.
To fight the Congress leader, BJP fielded one of its fiercest orators - Sushma Swaraj. Sonia couldn’t interact much with the public or the press due to security reasons. Connecting with the crowd was Swaraj’s forte.
Swaraj came to impress. The multilingual leader learned Kannada and gave speeches in the language.
It wasn’t exactly a polite campaign- BJP used the ‘foreign vs desi’ trope, its perennial offence against the Italy-born Sonia Gandhi.
But at the end, the ‘foreign bahu’ had the last laugh. She won the election albeit by a margin of over 56,000 votes.
Sushma Swaraj proved to be a worthy rival and cemented Bellary as a safe haven for BJP - the party has won the seat four times since 1999.
Arvind Kejriwal Vs Shiela Dixit
The Rookie Vs The Warhorse
Anarchy in Lutyens
On December 8, much before the Election Commission announced the final results of the 2013 Assembly Elections, New Delhi’s 3-time Chief Minister and Congress warhorse Shiela Dixit sent her resignation to the Capital's Lieutenant Governor.
Surrounded by press at her residence, Dixit accepted her defeat with humility. But when a journalist asked if Congress had perhaps failed to read the pulse of the city, Dixit famously retorted ‘we are fools’.
In retrospect, it was indeed foolish for the grand old party to not grasp the strong anti-incumbency emotion in the capital.
It was also perhaps unwise to not acknowledge the rising clout of the rookie aam aadmi, Arvind Kejriwal.
He had filed his papers on the last day of the nomination process to ensure his contest with Dixit.
Campaigning on issues of corruption, women’s safety, electricity and water tariffs, the debutant politician pulled a stunning victory, defeating Dixit with a margin of over 25,000 votes.
Underestimated, unacknowledged the broom swiped the Congress giant and laid the foundation of Aam Aadmi Party in the capital.
Smriti Irani Vs Rahul Gandhi
Fall of the Gandhi Bastion
An important battle in India’s contemporary politics, 2019 Lok Sabha’s Amethi election redefined the political landscape for Congress in both Uttar Pradesh and at the national level.
Rahul Gandhi lost his family bastion to BJP’s Smriti Zubin Irani. Historically a Congress citadel, Amethi voted for Irani who won by a margin of over 55,000 votes.
The BJP leader had contested against the Congress heir before in 2014- but back then Gandhi held on to the pocket borough with a margin of over 1.07 lakh votes.
Irani continued to visit Amethi, determined to clash with Gandhi again and win. She continued to visit the constituency after poll defeat. Her relentless and consistent campaigning overpowered Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s canvassing for her brother in 2019.
On May 23, day of the counting, even though early trends suggested her lead, Irani waited. Rahul Gandhi accepted his defeat with humility and congratulated Irani.
At 6:08 pm, quoting poet Dushyant Kumar, the BJP leader tweeted his famous words-
kaun kehta hai aasmaa may suraakh nahi ho sakta